• Development bankers meeting virtually at ALIDE’s General Assembly underscore the countercyclical role played in support of the region’s economies.
• They, further, propose bolstering finance toward sustainable and inclusive recovery, in alliance with multilateral lending organizations.
  

May 27, 2021- Latin American and Caribbean Development Banks lead countercyclical financing and encourage sustainable recovery, in line with multilateral lending organizations. During the ALIDE General Assembly —held as a virtual event on May 25 and 26— the bankers underscore the countercyclical role their institutions play in supporting the region’s economies and government policies to fight the pandemic and the economic and climate crises.

In 2020, the loan portfolios of the different Latin American and Caribbean banks increased in almost all of the countries, giving an insight into the countercyclical effect produced by the institutions during crisis situations. The analysis of a sample of 66 of the region’s public finance institutions revealed that 71.2% raised their portfolio balances by an average of 21%.

These announcements were made at the ALIDE General Assembly, which this year took place as a virtual event convening over 800 representatives of the international development finance community, public institutions and the private sector. The President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Werner Hoyer, and ALIDE President Carlos Linares, presented the guidelines for discussion during the opening session of the regional forum.

President Linares pointed out that “the Latin American and Caribbean public and development banks helped the countries to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. During the course of the pandemic, the banks have provided a rapid and well-timed response and, in some cases, one more significant than that of the financial system, highlighting their countercyclical performance in benefit of the region’s national economies. In 2020, these institutions allocated the equivalent of US$93,000 million in the region in financial support to fight the pandemic alone.”

EIB President Werner Hoyer stated that “the development banks of Europe and Latin America should join forces to promote investments that would improve people’s wellbeing and create wealth sustainably and inclusively. As the European Union’s climate bank and the largest multilateral financer of projects to fight climate change, the IEB could perform an important role in promoting sustainable investment as Latin America recovers from the pandemic. We fully intend to do so in cooperation with the ALIDE members.”

Proceedings of the Meeting

Presidents and executives of some of the most important Latin American national development banks participated in the General Assembly, where they discussed the key topic «Beyond the three-fold health, economic and environmental crisis: continuity or change?» The debates centered on the challenges and opportunities for change in three areas: i) the digital revolution in the banking sector and digitalization of SMEs and production sectors; ii) financial inclusion of women and their enterprises; and iii) sustainable and ecological recovery.

In regard to the first area, senior executives of the Banco de Desenvolvimento de Minas Gerais (BDMG), of Brazil, Nacional Financiera (Nafin) ,of Mexico, the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (Corfo), of Chile and the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Bapro), Argentina, revealed the advances made in digitalization and innovation by their countries’ production sectors, concentrating on measures implemented to assist SMEs.

Representatives of the French Development Agency (AFD), UN Women, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Fideicomisos Instituidos en Relación con la Agricultura (FIRA), of Mexico, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), for their part, evaluated Development Banking advances and strategies for boosting gender-specific and financial inclusion topics.

Participants were also told about projects to advance sustainable development carried out by the Banco de Comercio Exterior de Colombia (Bancóldex), the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), of Spain, the Banco Nacional de Desarrollo Económico y Social (BNDES), of Brazil, the Banco de Inversión y Comercio Exterior (BICE), of Argentina and the Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos (Banobras), of Mexico.

Special presentations

A variety of presentations and some special announcements were also made at the General Assembly.  On May 25, Enrico Petrocelli, Institutional Relations Chief of  the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Italy’s development bank, announced the forthcoming meeting of D20-LTIC and the second meeting on Finance in Common in the European country.  The event will strive to promote the collaboration of the community of Latin American development banks on the occasion of Italy’s presidency of G20.

The Regional Development Group of Public Private Partnerships PPPs, led by the IDB and ALIDE, met that same day.  Their presentation took up the successful experiences in and structuring of infrastructure projects using that finance system.

On May 26, Javier Manzanares, Deputy Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the world’s most important green fund, presented the Readiness Project approved for ALIDE and the national development banks entitled “Strengthening climate investments and finance in the LAC banking sector.”

The IDB-ALIDE-ECLAC cooperation agreement for developing a digital information platform and  financial innovation community for sustainable development was also announced. That cooperation will facilitate the access of Development Bank representatives to databases specialized in the subject and the exchange of knowledge.

About ALIDE

ALIDE is the community of financial institutions that generates banking solutions for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1968, its main objective is to contribute to the economic and social development of the region, through the good practices in development financing that it promotes among its associates, about 90 institutions with a presence in more than 20 Latin American countries and other regions of the world.

Contact

Hanguk Yun
Officer, Comunication Unit
Telephone: +511-203-5520 |: Ext: 226
comunicaciones@alide.org
www.alide.org