Philippine Business Bank (PBB) has signed up to the International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) Global Trade Finance Programme (GTFP).

The IFC's long running GTFP guarantees letter of credits (L/Cs) and other instruments by covering payment risk on banks in emerging markets for trade related transactions.

Benefits

President and CEO of PBB, Roland Avante, is upbeat on its financing agreement with IFC.

"With PBB's access to IFC's GTFP, we can encourage more trade at lower financing costs for our clients and reduce risks for counterparty financial institutions through IFC's guarantee," Avante said.

Features

Guarantees under GTFP are transaction-specific and may support a variety of underlying instruments.

These include L/Cs as well as trade related promissory notes, accepted drafts, bills of exchange, guarantees, bid and performance bonds, and advance-payment guarantees.

The guarantees are available for all private-sector trade transactions that meet IFC's eligibility criteria.

GTFP history

The programme was established in 2005 and now has a network of more than 500 partner banks.

IFC has provided over 18,000 trade finance guarantees under GTFP to support over US$30 billion in emerging market trade.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.