The Trade Finance Support Programme (TFSP) of the International Investment Bank (IIB) was named as the best in 2017 according to the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP). The IIB delegation led by the Deputy Chairman, Jozef Kollár, participated in the awards ceremony for the winners of the ADFIAP Awards 2017, which was held on May 10, 2017, as a part of the events of the 40th ADFIAP Annual Meeting in Macao, China.

The IIB was competing with other international financial institutions (IFIs) that are members of the ADFIAP and received the award for its TFSP under Trade Development category. The programme was initially introduced by the Bank in 2016 and currently offers a diversified range of services: from Irrevocable Reimbursement Undertakings to Trade Related Loans and financing under letters of credit.

During the awards ceremony, J. Kollár noted a number of unique characteristics of the TFSP, comparable to the services of commercial banks, and the relevance of the programme to the contractors from both the IIB’s member states and non-member countries. He expressed gratitude to the organizers of the competition and stressed that the TFSP consistently promotes the economic integration of the ADFIAP members and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region.

As part of the events of the ADFIAP Annual Meeting, the Deputy Chairman participated as an expert at the session “Roadmaps: Scaling up DFIs for the SDGs” on sustainable development. J. Kollár presented an overview of the instruments of the IFIs, in particular the IIB, to expand trade finance operations and multilateral regional cooperation. The participants of the roundtable discussed the relevant experience of ADFIAP members in such areas as SMEs, agriculture and affordable housing.

It is not the first time when the IIB has participated and received recognition for its programmes by the ADFIAP. In 2015, the Bank received the Association’s award for its Small and Medium Enterprises Support Programme. Thus, during the last four years the IIB's merits have been recognized by the Banking Association of Central and Eastern Europe with the Award for The Development of International Banking Co-operation and twice by the Romanian Stockbrokers’ Association with the annual award for its contribution to the development of Romania’s corporate bonds market. According to the results of 2016, English business edition bne IntelliNews called the IIB as the Most innovative IFI, and Russian business magazine Bankovskoe Obozrenie (Banking Review) awarded the Financial Sphere industry award for the implementation of an innovative IT-project.