India Exim Bank Signs Issuing Bank Agreements with Five Bangladeshi Banks

Export-Import Bank of India (India Exim Bank) during October 16-17, 2022, concluded Issuing Bank Agreements with 5 Bangladeshi Banks viz., Mutual Trust Bank Ltd., Dhaka Bank Ltd., Bank Asia Ltd., Midland Bank Ltd. and Shahjalal Islami Bank under India Exim Bank’s new trade facilitation initiative, Trade Assistance Programme (TAP).

India Exim Bank, through its global network of offices and wide range of financial, advisory and capacity building activities, has strived to play a catalytic role, as a key player, in promoting India’s international trade and investment relations with partner countries, while contributing to the internationalisation endeavours of Indian business.

With this backdrop, India Exim Bank has developed a new trade facilitation initiative Trade Assistance Programme (TAP). Under TAP, India Exim Bank provides support through credit enhancement to trade instrument(s), thereby enhancing the capacity of commercial banks/financial institutions to support cross-border trade transactions involving markets where trade lines are constrained or where the potential has not been harnessed

During the signing of the agreements, India Exim Bank’s Chief Financial Officer Mr. Tarun Sharma highlighted that over the last few months, India Exim Bank has supported multiple trade transactions with Bangladesh aggregating close to USD 20 mn covering a wide range of sectors including agriculture, automotive parts, capital and engineering goods, iron & steel and textiles  . The conclusion of Issuing Bank Agreements with the above 5 banks opens up more opportunities to support trade between the countries and enable these banks to establish working relationship with wider number of commercial banks in India.

India Exim Bank also organised an interactive session on TAP in Dhaka on October 17, 2022, to brief the partner banks about the objective, process flows and documentation. The session was attended by around 50 bankers from local banks in Bangladesh. The Team highlighted the following key offerings of TAP covering economies across Asia, Africa and Latin America: (a) Support to Trade Finance Instruments; (b) Irrevocable Reimbursement Undertaking; (c) Fronting Guarantees / Issuance of Counter Guarantees; and (d) Risk Participation.

Such support towards trade facilitation would complement and strengthen the growing economic engagement between India and Bangladesh. India Exim Bank has, on behalf of the Government of India, extended four Lines of Credit aggregating USD 7.862 billion to the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, for financing 42 developmental projects in Bangladesh. India Exim Bank has also extended a term loan of USD 1.60 billion for 2X660MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, which is expected to generate significant development outcomes including improved industrial output due to better power availability in Bangladesh.