The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) started its short term-finance programme in 2004, taking inspiration from the success of an earlier programme by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, says Antonio Alves, head of the IFC’s short-term finance for the Americas. Until then, the corporation had mainly dealt with project and longer term finance and Mr Alves was the first, and for a long time only, employee to work on the initiative, which initially focused solely on trade finance in Africa.
Mr Alves joined the IFC after completing a masters in business administration at HEC School of Management in Paris and a short career in banking in Brazil, his home country. “The IFC was looking for someone with language skills – Portuguese, French and English – to start the short-term finance department,” says Mr Alves. “I had no staff, I was based in Washington, DC, and travelling three weeks every month across Africa, often needing to fly through Europe as there were almost no internal connections. Some of the countries I visited were dealing with post-conflict issues.”