Join the TFP

Information for importers and exporters

If you sell to, or buy from, any of our countries of operations, the Trade Facilitation Programme can help secure payment or performance from your clients or suppliers.

We guarantee payment under trade finance instruments issued or guaranteed by local issuing banks to international confirming banks.

The eligible instruments include letters of credit, payment and other types of guarantees, bills of exchange or promissory notes, performance bonds and bid bonds.

The EBRD takes the commercial and political risk of non-payment by issuing banks. Issuing banks take the risk of local companies.

The final beneficiaries of the programme are importers and exporters. There are no fees levied on importers or exporters by the Bank. 

Fees for guarantees are payable by the bank requesting the EBRD cover unless specified otherwise in the application.

How to use the Trade Facilitation Programme

Many importers and exporters have already benefited from the Trade Facilitation Programme. 

In most cases, they may not have realised that their business was financed by an EBRD guarantee. This is because only the issuing and confirming banks are direct partners with the Bank.

If you want to benefit from the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation programme, please:

1. Confirm your bank is a TFP participant
2. Clarify the maximum tenor period with your bank
3. Determine whether your bank would be willing to issue or guarantee the required trade finance instrument and use TFP to cover the transaction
4. Check the level of confirmation fees required by your buyer or client, issuing and confirming banks and agree who will bear them
5. Ensure that the goods you are importing or exporting are not on the EBRD TFP Environmental and Social Exclusion list (30KB - PDF)

Constraints

Our programme cannot support all trade transactions for the following reasons:

• the selected issuing bank may not wish to take the risk of a local company
• the selected issuing bank may not wish to finance the transaction
• the selected issuing bank may wish to reserve our guarantee facility for other transactions
• the EBRD may not wish to, or cannot guarantee the transaction (e.g. because our guarantee limits for an issuing bank are already fully utilised)
• you or your client or supplier cannot agree on the cost of financing
• your export/import product is on the TFP Environmental and Social Exclusion List

Last updated 6 December 2012