The Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP) is IFC’s flagship trade finance program, having provided over 168,000 firms with $105 billion with trade finance over the last 20 years.
The GTFP supports key strategic priorities, including food security, job creation, climate, and gender, and most of the beneficiary firms operate in IDA countries. In fact, one third of GTFP activities are in agriculture and food, and 40% are in Africa.
Program Structure
GTFP offers confirming banks partial or full guarantees to cover payment risk on banks in the emerging markets. These guarantees are transaction-specific and apply to:
- letters of credit
- trade-related promissory notes and bills of exchange
- bid and performance bonds
- advance payment guarantees
- supplier credits for the import of capital goods
GTFP uses master agreements, which facilitate a 24-48 hour response time via SWIFT for individual transactions. GTFP has a dedicated trade unit to serve our partners’ business needs and offers commercial pricing with no commitment fees. In addition, GTFP provides funding to banks for short-term pre-export financing.
Training
Technical training for issuing banks represents an integral part of GTFP. Technical assistance modules comprise basic and intermediate courses on trade finance. On a selective basis, IFC places experienced trade finance bankers with issuing banks to help them develop trade finance and other banking skills. In addition, IFC assists in arranging training at major international trade banks for trade officers of issuing banks.
