IDB announces $8B in new credit lines to deal with external shocks, natural disasters

Oct 06, 2012 News

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched two new contingent credit facilities for Latin America and the Caribbean yesterday, one to help countries deal beforehand with shocks caused by external financial crises and another to help nations cope with the aftermath of natural disasters.
A new Development Sustainability Contingent Credit Line (DSL) will make $6 billion available to the IDB’s 26 borrowing member countries over the 2012-2014 period, with a maximum of $2 billion per year and with unused resources from one year carrying over to the next one. The new line is designed to help countries protect its poorest citizens from sharp fluctuations in commodity prices, global liquidity crises and other exogenous factors.
A separate Contingent Credit Line for Natural Disasters (CCL) will help countries cover urgent financing needs that arise immediately after a natural disaster. The overall amount for the CCL is capped at $2 billion for 2012-2014. In addition, a separate and currently available Contingent Credit Facility for Natural Disasters (CCF) is being expanded.
“Many of the poorest citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean region have seen their lives improve in recent years thanks to better social programs and macroeconomic management,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.
“Development Banks such as ours can help protect these policies and social programs from earthquakes, floods, commodity price fluctuations, external financial crises and other events that are beyond the control of governments.”
The new DSL was approved by the IDB Board of Governors in a vote that ended yesterday and replaces the previous $3 billion Emergency Lending facility. It is designed to specifically protect programs and policies that assist the poor from external financial shocks and is capped at a maximum of $300 million per country, or 2 percent of a country’s GDP, whichever is lower. Countries get the contingency line approved before the event takes place.
The drawdown period is three years from the effective date of the loan contract. The DSL has a three-year grace period, a six-year maturity and a loan spread equal to the IDB variable lending spread for sovereign guaranteed operations financed by the ordinary capital, plus 165bps (equal to 227 bps for 2012). To facilitate coordination, financial terms are similar to those offered by other multilateral development institutions.

Natural disaster assistance
The Contingent Credit Line for Natural Disasters is to provide borrowing member countries with resources to cover urgent financing needs that arise immediately after a natural disaster, until other sources of funding can be accessed. The country limit is $100 million or 1 percent of GDP, whichever is lower.
The facility carries a three-year grace period and a 14-year maturity, and is priced on LIBOR.
The new CCL will complement the currently available Contingent Credit Facility for Natural Disasters (CCF), a more restrictive facility created to help countries deal with catastrophic natural disasters. Unlike the CCL, the CCF has no overall limit, though the limit per country has been set to $300 million or 2 percent of GDP, whichever is lower.

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IDB announces $8B in new credit lines to deal with external shocks, natural disasters

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