International Financial Corporation (IFC) and International Investment Bank (IIB) have agreed on closer collaboration, to provide vital financing to private companies, help boost growth, and create jobs in emerging markets.
IIB has become the latest signatory of IFC’s Master Cooperation Agreement (MCA), which standardizes steps that lenders take when co-financing projects with IFC, saving time and money for borrowers—private companies in emerging markets—and lenders.
IFC created the MCA in response to calls by the Group of 20 for official finance institutions to collaborate more closely to help meet shortfalls in private sector financing during the global financial crisis.
“International Investment Bank has the mission to support small and medium enterprises in our member countries through providing targeted credit lines to banks, and participation in syndicated lending. This agreement will allow us to work more efficiently with IFC, and other parties to the MCA, to increase efficiency as we jointly invest in projects that contribute to growth and job creation.” said Nikolay Kosov, chairman of the Board of IIB.
IFC and IIB have worked together on co-investments to help Mongolia’s Khan Bank expand its small and medium enterprise (SME) business, and to support Russia’s Transcapitalbank in growing its SME energy efficiency finance program.
Tomasz Telma, IFC Director for Europe and Central Asia, said: “The agreement with IIB marks another important addition to our network of MCA signatories, and improves our ability to respond more efficiently to the financing needs of SMEs in IIB member countries.”
IFC’s syndicated loan program, the oldest and largest syndicated lending program among multilateral development banks, is an important tool for mobilizing capital to serve development needs. In FY13, IFC syndicated about $3.1 billion in B loans and parallel loans, provided by more than 60 co-financiers—including commercial banks, funds, MCA signatories, and other development finance institutions.
IIB is the nineteenth institution to sign up to the MCA. Other MCA signatories include: Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation, Banque Ouest-Africaine de Developpement, Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, CDC Group, COFIDES, Development Bank of Japan, Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, Eurasian Development Bank, Export Development Canada, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V., Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG, OPEC Fund for International Development, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Sociedade Para o Financiamento do Desenvolvimento, Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique, and Swedfund International AB.