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Transaction bankingApril 25 2014

Supporting trade finance in Latin America

Over the past decade, the International Finance Corporation's short-term finance programme has facilitated billions of dollars of trade finance, and the programme's Americas head, Antonio Alves, is confident about its continued success.
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Supporting trade finance in Latin America

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.”

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Silvia Pavoni is editor in chief of The Banker. Silvia also serves as an advisory board member for the Women of the Future Programme and for the European Risk Management Council, and is part of the London council of non-profit WILL, Women in Leadership in Latin America. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by City University of London.
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