The Inter-American Development Bank is pumping US$300,000 into ratings agency CariCRIS, under a deal that gives the multilateral 8.4 per cent ownership of the Trinidad-based firm.
The IDB is injecting the capital, which amounts to TT$1.9 million or J$26.7 million, through its Multilateral Investment Fund.
The IDB will also provide another US$25,000 in technical grant funds, to be used by CariCRIS in "its promotional and developmental efforts," said the agency in a statement announcing the development bank as shareholder.
The agreement was signed June 5 in Port of Spain, home to CariCRIS.
The agency now shares ownership of CariCRIS, or theCaribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited, with Caribbean Development Bank, the Central Bank of Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as major commercial banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and mutual funds across the region.
The statement quoted IDB Trinidad country representative, Iwan Sewberath Misser, as saying that the bank was particularly interested in the partnership because of "the model recently developed by CariCRIS for the rating of small and medium enterprises."
The bank wants to explore the model as "a tool for improving access to finance" by smaller businesses in the region, said Misser.
Terrence Martin, chairman of CariCRIS, said the two entities had a common objective of developing the region's capital markets.
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