CAF and CFN expand access to financing for Ecuadorian SMEs and Microenterprises

ECUADORIAN GUARANTEE FUND

Enrique García, president & CEO of the Andean Development Corporation, CAF, was witness of honor at the signing of a consulting agreement between Corporación Financiera Nacional (CFN) and the Chilean Guarantee Fund for Small Entrepreneurs (FOGAPE).

García emphasized the importance of structuring a Guarantee Fund for Small, Medium-Sized and Microenterprises (MSMEs) with the objective of improving access to financing for the sector. The highly positive Chilean experience in this area will help obtain concrete results, he added.

CFN general manager Darwin Zabala Torres said the objectives of the mechanism were to improve access by MSMEs to productive financing.

A Credit Guarantee Fund grants a reasonable percentage of guarantees to entrepreneurs who do not have them in order to back their credit applications to the financial system, the executive said. With this mechanism, the CFN strengthens its credit effort and confirms its position as an important actor in the development of the national productive sector.

Under the cooperation agreement signed between the two institutions, CAF approved a technical cooperation grant for CFN to structure and implement a guarantee mechanism and guaranteed stop loss: Ecuadorian Guarantee Fund.

After the process of international invitation, the Chilean Guarantee Fund for Small Entrepreneurs FOGAPE was selected to analysis, design, start up and monitor the fund in Ecuador. This institution has broad international experience in the management of credit guarantees for the MSME sector.

RURAL MICROFINANCE TRUST CFN has been managing microfinance trusts for six years. These trusts pay out funds through regulated financial institutions, not regulated by the Superintendency of Banks, and NGOs that offer their services mainly in rural areas.

Based on CFN’s experience and to contribute to the development of the rural sector of the country, CAF will form a trust with funds of its own and other possible members to be managed by CFN. The purpose of the trust is to grant, manage and collect the reimbursable credits from operators who place funds in microenterprises in the rural sector.

With an initial capital of US$250,000, the trust expects an increase in the funds from CAF and other members in the future.

With these developments, CAF and CNF in their areas are making a decisive contribution to the economic and productive development of Ecuador.