Trade finance
What the Trade Finance Facilitation Program is.
IDB Invest's Trade Finance Facilitation Program, the TFFP, is a program for banks. Caribbean Equities is not a bank in that program, and it is not a participant.
Guarantees for confirming banks, and loans for local banks.
Trade finance is how a buyer pays for goods that are still on the water, and how a seller gets paid without waiting until the buyer has sold them. In Latin America and the Caribbean that finance is often hard to get. IDB Invest describes the TFFP as one of its answers.
Under the program, the IDB and IDB Invest do two things for banks. They provide credit guarantees to international confirming banks, to cover risk on trade instruments issued by banks in Latin America and the Caribbean. They also provide short-term loans to those local banks, through credit lines, so the banks can finance portfolios of eligible trade transactions.
IDB Invest says the program was launched in 2005. Its public description says the network includes more than 120 banks in Latin America and the Caribbean and more than 300 worldwide, counting correspondent banks. From 2005 through 31 March 2025, IDB Invest reports that the program supported more than 36,000 trade-finance transactions, with a value of about US$21 billion. Those figures are IDB Invest's.
Who it serves.
The program serves banks. On one side are local banks in Latin America and the Caribbean that issue trade instruments, such as a letter of credit for an importer. On the other side are confirming banks, the international banks that take those instruments. IDB Invest's own page also describes the buyers and sellers behind the trades: a seller who needs to be paid in order to produce or ship, and a buyer who needs time to pay for goods, raw materials, or equipment.
The program is not a facility for a trading firm. Caribbean Equities does not issue letters of credit, does not confirm them, and is not listed in the TFFP network.
One letter-of-credit path.
A buyer asks its local bank to issue a letter of credit in favor of the supplier. That issuing bank is in the region. A confirming bank abroad takes the instrument. The TFFP guarantee, when it is used, sits with the confirming bank and covers risk on the instrument the local bank issued. If the documents match, the supplier is paid. The steps below are that path, in order.
Countries with an issuing bank named below.
Jamaica, Suriname, and Guyana are highlighted because each one has an issuing bank on IDB Invest's TFFP network list for September 2026. The highlight is only those three countries. It is not a map of every bank in the program, and it is not a statement that a letter of credit is available in a highlighted country.
Navy shapes are the countries named on this page. Other land is shown for context.
The smallest islands are a few pixels wide. US ports are the marked squares. Use this list, or tab through the map and press Enter.
- Country named on this page
- Small-island marker
- US port
- Context land, not indexed
Bermuda, a CARICOM associate, sits in the North Atlantic and is outside this frame. French Guiana, Venezuela and Central America are drawn for context and are not in the index. Long Beach and San Diego share the California inset. Blank or “Not stated” roles are not asserted. “Not handled” means that commodity is not a cargo of the port. “(assumed)” means the role follows from the place’s known trade but is not tied to a cargo statistic.
How this fits a Caribbean Equities deal.
On a trade we structure, the buyer is the party who would ask a bank for a letter of credit. We structure the contract so that request can go to a TFFP-participating bank in the buyer's market: specification, documents, and the moment payment is due, written so a bank can read them. The letter of credit itself is the bank's undertaking to the supplier. It is not ours.
We can introduce buyers to their local participating bank to discuss letters of credit; Caribbean Equities has no affiliation with, and is not endorsed by, IDB Invest or the banks listed.
Participating issuing banks in our markets (per IDB Invest's TFFP network list, Sept 2026)
These names are copied from the Issuing Banks section of that list. The tiles are set in our type. They are not the banks' logos, and a name here is not a relationship with the bank.
- National Commercial Bank Jamaica LimitedJamaica
- FinabankSuriname
- Guyana Bank for Trade and IndustryGuyana
Names are shown for reference. They do not imply an endorsement, a banking relationship, or that any letter of credit will be issued.
Sources
- IDB Invest, “Trade and Supply Chain Finance,” including the description of the Trade Finance Facilitation Program. idbinvest.org/en/solutions/trade-and-supply-chain-finance
- IDB Invest, “TFFP Network,” updated September 2026. Issuing-bank names on this page are taken from that list. TFFP Network — September 2026 (PDF)
Related: Our process · How insurance wrappers protect a trade · Private credit and insurance wrappers · Fraud warning: SBLC scams
Enquiries
Tell us the buyer, the cargo, and the port.
We will say whether a letter of credit at a local bank is a sensible way to write the payment. We do not issue one.