JBIC Signs MOU with IFC for Supporting Trade Finance Responding to the Global Financial Crisis
Catalyzing International Finance
NR/2009-3
April 27, 2009
April 27, 2009
- The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC;President&CEO:Hiroshi Watanabe)*1 signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for supporting trade finance with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on April 24 (U.S.time).
- Following the announcements by the Government of Japan in February and April this year, JBIC is currently working to implement a US$1.5 billion trade finance facility (which will support overall total trade transactions worth up to US$60 billion over the next two-year period). The World Bank Group also launched the Global Trade Liquidity Program (GTLP) to be managed by the IFC in this April. In view of these developments, this MOU sets out provisions for close exchange of information between JBIC and IFC on selecting banks in developing countries for which both institutions will jointly provide financial support, thereby strengthening cooperative relations between the two institutions in this area.
- IFC, a multilateral development finance institution, is a member of the World Bank Group set up with the aim of supporting private sector development in developing countries. IFC is thus actively supporting trade finance and is engaged in implementing the GTLP. As credit contraction caused by the global financial crisis has had a significant impact on the effective supply of trade finance, especially in developing countries, close cooperation between JBIC and IFC to facilitate trade finance is expected to lead to speedy and effective support for bolstering trade transactions.
- JBIC will continue to mobilize its variety of financial instruments, including trade finance facilities, in coping with the current global financial turmoil in order to perform one of the key functions of its mission: "responding to disruptions to financial order in the international economy."
