Standard Chartered Bank and the OPEC Fund for International Development OFID, a multilateral development financial institution, have expanded their Trade Finance Portfolio Risk Participation Programme from $500 million to $1 billion. The programme was initially signed in 2009 to help encourage more trade financing in emerging and developing countries.
The original programme generated an estimated incremental trade of $2 billion annually and the renewed agreement is expected to generate incremental trade volume up to $4 billion per year. The number of banks that will benefit from the programme has increased from 80 in 18 emerging and developing countries to 150 in more than 25 countries, benefitting around 20,000 clients....