NEW YORK — Banco Aliado S.A., Panama’s third-largest bank by market capitalization, has signed a 10-year financing deal for USD50 million with IDB Invest, aiming to fund small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Central America nation.

The deal, announced today by IDB Invest in a public statement, “seeks to improve Banco Aliado’s capitalization level and provide long-term financing required to finance SMEs in Panama,” the multilateral institution said.

96.4% of Panama’s companies are small and medium-sized, with a low level of productivity, largely due to their difficulty in accessing credit, IDB said in the statement, while MSMEs led or owned by women represent around 44% of all MSMEs in the country, but only 4% have access to financial services to meet their working capital needs.

IDB Invest, a member of the IDB Group, is a multilateral bank promoting economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean through the private sector. The bank has USD13.1 billion in assets under management and 385 clients in 25 countries.

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Also relevant:
* Banco Aliado se consolida como el tercer banco de capital panameño
* Gustavo Eisenmann nuevo Presidente Ejecutivo y Gerente General de Banco Aliado

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