The mid-year marks a strategic milestone for your institution.
In an environment where prudential requirements are becoming increasingly strict and pressure on capital is intensifying, room for maneuver is shrinking. At the same time, economic uncertainties persist, making every credit decision more critical.
You must now combine regulatory compliance with the ability to sustainably finance your clients.
Thus, several requirements are imposed on you:
- Manage your risk concentrations, particularly by complying with the large exposure limit to a single counterparty (capped at 25% of regulatory capital);
- Reduce your Exposure at Default (EAD) in case of default, thereby protecting your balance sheet against potential losses;
- Optimize the risk-weighting of your assets to preserve capital while ensuring adequate coverage of loans granted;
- Be able to justify at any time the compliance of your portfolios with supervisory authorities’ requirements.
In this context, each credit granting or renewal decision takes on a strategic dimension. It is no longer only a matter of ensuring that financing is profitable, but also of evaluating its effect on your bank’s overall financial balance.
That is why it is essential that you rely on simple solutions, enabling you to continue financing your clients without compromising prudential management rules. Today, this represents a true lever of competitiveness for your institution.
Guarantees: A Lever to Strengthen Your Balance Sheet
Guarantees are often seen only as a means of reducing risk. Yet, they can play a far more strategic role by helping you better manage your financial stability.
Especially during interim reviews, guarantees allow you to:
- Adjust your commitments to major clients with precision;
- Reduce the amount of capital required to cover high risks;
- Continue financing major projects while remaining compliant with prudential rules.
While some banks choose to limit risks or slow down lending in order to remain within regulatory standards, you can instead choose to use innovative solutions—such as guarantees for regulatory purposes—to continue growing without compromising financial soundness.
An Operational Solution: The Concentration Risk Bond (CRB) by ETC
The advantages of the CRB
The Concentration Risk Bond (CRB), also known as the Large Exposure Guarantee, offered by ETC – Export Trading Cooperation, provides a wide range of benefits. Here are some of them:
- Effective Risk Mitigation: The CRB reduces your Exposure at Default (EAD) in case of default, thereby protecting your balance sheet against potential losses.
- Capital Allocation Optimization: By leveraging ETC’s public rating (A-), you can adjust exposure weighting and free up capital. This allows you to allocate more resources to financing high value-added projects for the African economy.
- Increased Financing Capacity: The CRB helps you comply with risk concentration limits, giving you the ability to finance more large-scale projects and support your clients’ growth
- Regulatory Compliance Secured: The CRB is a valuable tool to help you comply with the large exposure ratio under Basel III, ensuring that your portfolio remains within supervisory requirements.
Use Cases of the CRB:
The CRB is particularly suited for:
- Covering financing of essential infrastructure: roads, ports, energy, telecommunications.
- Supporting SMEs by applying it as a portfolio guarantee.
- Backing national and regional champions in their growth strategies.
- Promoting financial inclusion by facilitating access to credit for a wider range of economic actors.
ETC provides you with a flexible, tailor-made solution adapted to the specificities of the African market and to regulatory requirements. With the CRB, you can support economic growth while safeguarding your institution’s financial solidity.
About ETC
ETC is a European guarantee institution working with banks and institutions operating in Africa. ETC provides technical and financial services in support of investment and international trade projects.
ETC benefits from a public rating of A3- (Risk Category 2 under the EU prudential framework), issued by an OEEC and published with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), and a AA long-term / A1 short-term rating issued by Bloomfield Investment Corporation, valid in the AMF-WAEMU area and other African markets.An active SWIFT member under the code ETCGIT2T, ETC is able to provide guarantee instruments such as Standby Letters of Credit (SBLCs) in compliance with International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) rules.
