Banking - Jamaica - First Global finishes 1st transaction with IDB trade finance program

Jamaican commercial bank First Global Bank has closed its first transaction through IDB's trade finance facilitation program (TFFP), the multilateral said in a statement.

Two additional guarantees have already been issued in trade deals involving consumer goods and agricultural imports, the statement said.

The program aims to expand First Global's access to international trade financing sources and to provide "support during difficult economic cycles when liquidity for trade financing normally dries up," IDB senior trade finance officer Joao Vianei da Silva told BNamericas.

"[There is] no cost to keep the line nor obligation for IDB nor for First Global to utilize the line," he said.

IDB is currently evaluating one other financial institution in Jamaica, which would like to join TFFP, according to da Silva.

First Global, Jamaica's only locally owned commercial bank, is a subsidiary of local holding company GraceKennedy. At end-June, First Global had total assets of J$24.7bn (US$344mn) or 4.7% of the island's commercial banking assets.

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