Banco Internacional, Ecuador’s sixth largest bank has joined the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IADB) trade finance facilitation programme (TFFP) in an effort to increase its capacity for trade finance.

Under the terms of the scheme, the IADB extends guarantees to cover letters of credit, promissory notes and other trade transactions. Banco Internacional will join the programme as both an issuing and confirming bank.

“Membership in the TFFP will enable Banco Internacional to further diversify its international funding base among existing and new correspondent banks. Furthermore, it will help the bank to engage in intra-regional trade transactions”, comments Giannina Nuez, IADB’s project team leader.

The TFFP scheme was launched in 2005 and is a means by which the IADB could encourage economic growth through supporting trade finance between Latin American and Caribbean companies. There are almost 100 confirming banks and 26 issuing banks participating in the scheme.