It was on September 28 that Boris Bilé COFFI, Managing Director of BGFIBank Europe, signed the official document validating the renewal of the risk division portfolio guarantee offered by the ETC Export Trading Cooperation Group.
Countersigned respectively by the President Anco Marzio LENARDON, the Vice-President Enrico MAZZON and the Regional Director Jean-Gauthier GAMBOR, this coverage line renewed for a period of 12 months follows a first agreement ratified in September 2019 between the Bank and the Guarantee Fund.

ETC and BGFI: A partnership that lasts

The two institutions are not at their trial run. Indeed, as early as July 4, 2019, ETC and BGFIBank Europe announced through Anco Marzio LENARDON, President of ETC, and Francesco DE MUSSO, Managing Director of BGFIBank Europe at the time, a partnership agreement.
This aimed to combine the technical expertise of the Guarantee Fund and the financial capacity of the banker in order to develop facilities for financing trade and portfolio investments. The two institutions were already imagining the provision of instruments likely to promote the emergence of high value-added projects between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, in particular with the collaboration of the African subsidiaries of the BGFIBank group.
And to strengthen this partnership, a cross-shareholding took place between the two groups.

The advantages of the ETC Guarantee for BGFIBank Europe

As a reminder, ETC (Export Trading Cooperation) is a guarantee fund specializing in the technical-financial management of international trade and investments, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It is an active member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) under category 2 called NOSU (Non Supervised Entity active in financial industry), with its BIC (Business Identifier Code) ETCGIT2T allowing it to provide assistance to FIs (Financial Institution) and DFI (Development Financial Institution) according to the activities defined by said Swift category.

ETC’s hedging instrument is the autonomous guarantee, materialized via SWIFT MT760 interbank message in accordance with the standards of the International Chamber of Commerce (URDG, ISP). Consequently, it represents a direct, irrevocable and unconditional debt.

Limit use of the interbank market

Thanks to the ETC Portfolio Guarantee, BGFIBank finds an alternative to the traditional interbank market.

Better finance the economy

The guarantee instrument offered by ETC offers BGFIBank the possibility of increasing its presence on the market by further financing so-called “large risk” clients for their short-term financing needs to boost trade with sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, one of the advantages of mitigating the bank’s exposure is that of improving the latter’s ability to finance the economy of its territory.