DHAKA, July 14, 2021 (BSS) - CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, has announced the close of a $30 million trade finance loan to City Bank, one of Bangladesh’s top-performing private banks.  

The loan facility will provide systemic liquidity that will support continuing import and export activities and help bolster the country’s economic growth.

CDC’s investment will enable City Bank to extend foreign currency trade credit to local banks as well as local importing and exporting businesses, and is expected to generate up to $100 million of additional trade every year, said a press release.

M Rehan Rashid, Country Director for Bangladesh, CDC Group, said “This loan to City Bank, which marks CDC’s first direct trade finance loan to a local issuing bank, will further enhance the supply of trade finance in the region.”

He said CDC is committed to offering patient and stable trade finance funding that will facilitate continued supply of goods and services – helping Bangladeshi businesses grow and remain resilient throughout and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sheikh Mohammad Maroof, Additional Managing Director at City Bank, said “This loan from CDC will help facilitate trade finance through UPAS LCs which in turn, will enable corporates and SMEs to optimize working capital management at competitive rates during such unprecedented times.”

Robert Chatterton Dickson, The British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, welcomed CDC’s first-ever direct trade finance loan to a bank in Bangladesh.