Early Warning System

Countries

Ecuador

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Specific Location

UNINFORMED

Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.

Financial Institutions

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Proposed

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Jan 6, 2022

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

Banco Pichincha CA

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Finance

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Loan

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 50.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Project Cost (USD)

$ 50.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS May 13, 2022

Disclosed by Bank Nov 22, 2021

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

The proposed investment consists of an up to five-year financing to Banco Pichincha Ecuador (Pichincha or the Bank), through an up to US$50 million subscription of senior gender bonds for IFC’s own account. The proceeds of the issuance will be used to provide access to finance for women-owned small and medium enterprises (WSMEs) in Ecuador (the Project). The Project will be the first gender bond to be issued by Pichincha.

People Affected By This Project

People Affected By This Project refers to the communities of people likely to be affected positively or negatively by a project.

The Project is expected to have a strong stakeholders impact by aiming to increase access to finance for SMEs and, more specifically, WSMEs. The estimated financing gap for SMEs is US$15.7 billion or 16% of the country's GDP, while the financing gap for WSMEs is US$1.2 billion, which represents 8.1% of the SME finance gap. Moreover, Ecuador ranks 86th on the 2019 Gender Inequality Index, implying that there is still much work to be done to level the playing field and increase access to finance to WSMEs.
Additionally, the Project is expected to have a strong contribution to market creation through inclusiveness, as the Project is anticipated to be the first gender bond issued by the largest bank in Ecuador with a strong SME and WSME business focus and will promote greater market inclusiveness by encouraging other banks to issue thematic bonds of their own focused on supporting WSMEs. With this proposed investment IFC will introduce a gender-themed bond, which is specifically designed to support women-owned small businesses. IFC expects that increased market-wide awareness of this funding method will help demonstrate the commercial viability of financing WSMEs.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Private Actor 1	Private Actor 1 Role	Private Actor 1 Sector	Relation	Private Actor 2	Private Actor 2 Role	Private Actor 2 Sector
-	-	-	-	Banco Pichincha	Client	Finance

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Banco Pichincha
Eduardo Urgiles
Head of Treasury
(593 2) 2 980-980
eurgiles@pichincha.com
Av. Amazonas y Pereira
www.pichincha.com