Regional trade to benefit from new partnership
- EBRD and Addiko Bank to partner in trade finance in south-eastern Europe
- Support for local and intra-regional trade
- Addiko Bank to support clients’ re-integration into regional trade flows
The EBRD and Addiko Bank, an international financial group with a network in south-eastern Europe, are becoming partners in trade finance, supporting economic integration in the region and the expansion of trade relations.
Addiko Bank has banking subsidiaries in Bosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia with more than one million clients. Together with the Vienna-based international financial group, the six banks will be joining the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) as confirming banks.
This will allow the local Addiko Banks to support exports from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia and also to facilitate intra-regional trade, a major driver of economic growth and development. It will also expand the number of confirming banks in the region.
The agreement is being complemented by work on trade finance facilities for local Addiko banks as issuing banks. The expansion of Addiko Bank’s trade finance operations will help re-integrate their clients into regional trade flows by supporting exports. This in turn is expected to boost local companies with better access to bigger markets.
The TFP, launched by the EBRD in 1999, promotes foreign trade to, from and among the countries in which the Bank invests. Through the programme, the EBRD provides guarantees to international confirming banks and short-term loans to selected banks and factoring companies for on-lending to local exporters, importers and distributors.
The TFP currently includes 94 partner banks in 26 countries, with limits exceeding €1.5 billion in total and more than 800 confirming banks worldwide.
Addiko Bank is an international financial group headquartered in Vienna, Austria, operating through six banks across its core south-east European markets under the Addiko Bank brand. Following a comprehensive restructuring process, the bank successfully completed its turnaround in 2017 when it returned to profit by posting a positive net result of €41.6 million.
