The Latin American units of Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) have joined the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB's) largely letter of credit (L/C) based Trade Finance Facilitation Programme (TFFP) as confirming banks.

The BBVA subsidiaries concerned are in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

BBVA participation

The Latin American subsidiaries join BBVA's branches in Belgium, China, France, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, which have participated as TFFP confirming banks since May 2005 when BBVA Spain joined the programme.

The participation of its Latin American subsidiaries makes BBVA one of the leading TFFP confirming banks in the region and according to the IDB says, the inclusion of these banks in the programme will boost its objective of fostering intra-regional trade finance flows.

TFFP

Under the TFFP, the IDB extends guarantees to cover documentary and standby L/Cs, promissory notes, bills of exchange, bid and performance bonds, advance payment bonds and other instruments used in international trade finance transactions.

Launched in 2005, the TFFP supports economic growth through the expansion of international trade finance available to Latin American and Caribbean companies.

The TFFP currently comprises a network of more than 116 confirming banks from 54 different international banking groups, and 29 issuing banks in 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

To date, the IDB has issued guarantees for over US$182 million in support of 230 individual trade transactions totalling US$245 million.

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