The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is this month signing agreements with nine Pakistani banks that are joining the ADB's Trade Finance Facilitation Programme (TFFP).

The TFFP is aimed at bolstering trade in Asia via a number of measures, including support for letters of credit (L/Cs).

New participants

The new participating banks in the programme are Allied Bank Limited, Askari Bank Limited, Bank Alfalah Limited, Faysal Bank Limited, Habib Bank Limited, Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited, MCB Bank Limited, Meezan Bank Limited and National Bank of Pakistan.

The programme is focused on lending to issuing banks located in ADB's developing member countries to fund the banks' advances to importers and exporters for pre-shipment and post-shipment financing.

Confirming banks

These loans may be used to provide finance to exporters and importers in Asia's less developed emerging markets.

The ADB has appointed Deutsche Bank (Karachi Branch) and Deutsche Bank (Lahore Branch) as participating confirming banks for TFFP.

Programme features

Under the TFFP, ADB provides guarantees to confirming banks covering country risks as well as risks in issuing banks' L/Cs and other trade finance instruments.

The ADB shares risk with confirming banks to provide assurances to exporters that they will be paid for shipments, even to Asia's most challenging markets.

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