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CAF –development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-, announced that it broke a record figure during 2025: it approved a total of 18.56 billion dollars in financing for sustainable development – becoming the highest amount in its 56 years of life -, while it issued 8.3 billion dollars in international bonds. “The 2025 results are the result of a clear strategy and the commitment of our entire team,” Sergio Díaz-Granados, executive president of CAF, who was recently re-elected to continue in this position during the 2026-2031 period, said in a statement.
The approved financing will be allocated to strategic sectors ranging from sustainable mobility to the modernization of prison systems, resources that increasingly cover new places, as CAF expanded its membership to 24 countries.
“We have met our green goals ahead of schedule, achieved the best risk rating in our history and mobilized unprecedented resources for the benefit of all Latin Americans and Caribbeans,” added Díaz-Granados. “All this is good news for Latin America and the Caribbean, which today has the strategic, financial and knowledge support of CAF, one of the most precious assets in the region.”
Under his leadership, in 2021 the institution set the goal that at least 40% of its approvals would be sustainable by 2026, a goal that was achieved in advance in 2024. For this reason, and pursuing its focus of becoming the green bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, during the COP30 in Belém CAF announced that it will commit 40 billion dollars for green financing in the next five years and will increase the percentage of its financing 50% green by 2030. Throughout 2025 alone, for example, the bank made an investment of 2.5 billion dollars to boost the blue economy, allocated 18 billion dollars for sustainable transportation and issued its first sustainable bond for 1.5 billion euros.
Between January 28 and 29, CAF will also hold its second International Economic Forum in Panama, one that was born in 2025 with the objective of positioning the region on the global stage. Among the international guests who will attend are Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil; Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador, and José Raúl Mulino, president of the host country. The space will also feature presentations by Nobel Prize winners in Economics James Robinson (2024) and Philippe Aghion (2025), as well as Joseph Oughourlian, president of the Prisa Group.
This second edition of the forum, organized by CAF and partners such as Grupo Prisa and World in Progress, seeks to be a fixed event on the calendar of thinkers, civil society and businessmen who can contribute to the conversation about the agricultural sector, mining, gas and clean technologies, the energy and environmental transition, the powershoring or services and digitalization. In the previous call, some 2,000 people attended, more than 150 world leaders from 15 countries, 50 panels were held and some 350,000 people joined the streaming.
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