3-6-12 BNA of Argentina joins CABEI’s IFACIL initiative to facilite international trade

The Banco de la Nacion Argentina (BNA) has joined CABEI’s program, Initiative to Facilitate International Trade (IFACIL1) as a confirming bank.

In a ceremony held yesterday in the city of San Salvador, Raúl Castaneda, CABEI Manager of the El Salvador Regional Office and Jorge Rossi, a BNA representative, formalized the agreement affiliating the state-owned Argentine bank with the IFACIL initiative, which mobilizes resources to promote foreign trade, a key engine for the region’s growth.
With this initiative, CABEI hopes to strengthen its relationship with BNA in order to promote Argentine trade with the Central American region.

The product, which involves guarantees and cash advances for foreign trade operations, plays a crucial role in the inclusive and sustainable strengthening of small and medium exporters and importers, increasing their competitiveness and creating opportunities that generate employment," explained CABEI Director for El Salvador, Guillermo Funes.

Launched by CABEI in 2010, IFACIL acts to facilitate international trade in the region by promoting the expansion and strengthening of sectors with limited resources, using traditional commercial banks as IFIs to support their foreign trade operations.

“Under this CABEI program, the Bank grants a guarantee to cover the credit risk of international and regional correspondent banks, which are not in a position to assume direct risk from local banks,” explained CABEI Foreign Trade executive, Soraya Bocanegra.

In this way, IFACIL expands the financial options of the local banking system to carry out international trade operations through the network of correspondent banks working with CABEI. Similarly, correspondent banks benefit by having access to local banks, which maintain credit relationships with CABEI.

Ms. Bocanegra added that this financial instrument makes it possible to formalize operations between different parties and stimulates international trade operations to and within the Central American market.

To date, the IFACIL initiative has expanded its coverage through the signing of agreements with confirming banks around the world, including Argentina, Belgium, Scotland, Spain, the USA, England, Japan, and Switzerland.