IDB launches trade finance training initiative within its TFFP
03 May '08
3 min read
By inviting especially small clients of TFFP Issuing Banks to attend the same trainings as the banks staff free of charge, this initiative hopes to not only improve trade finance skills and capacities on both sides, but also to promote business opportunities between TFFP Issuing Banks and small companies and strengthen their relationship, in order to identify opportunities for cooperation that enable the companies to further grow and create wealth and employment”, says Paolo Giordano, technical coordinator of the fund in the IDB's Integration and Trade Sector of the IDB.
“By especially targeting small clients, this initiative enhances the market-deepening, pro-poor impact of the IDB Trade Finance Facilitation Program and reaches out to companies that tend to have less easy access to skills strengthening opportunities than large corporations”, he adds.
Launched and rolled out in 2005, the TFFP is an effective tool for the IDB to support economic reactivation and growth through the expansion of financing available for international trade activities in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The TFFP currently consists of a network of 175 Confirming Banks belonging to 73 different international banking groups in 38 countries, and 31 Issuing Banks in 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries, with around US$600 million in approved credit lines. To date, the IDB has issued guarantees for US$268 million in support of more than 300 individual international trade transactions totaling US$350 million.