Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation was created in 2018 in response to the contraction of credit in the OECS banking system, and the need for MSMEs to have access to credit to grow their businesses. The project is a collaboration between the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and the World Bank which has provided loans to select member countries and provides technical assistance to the project. The participating governments are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Each government has contributed US$2M to the Corporation, resulting in a capital base of US$12M. The offices of the Corporation are located on the campus of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.

The main objective of the Corporation is to issue guarantees to partner financial institutions so that clients who have insufficient collateral would now qualify for business loans. The guarantees provide the balance of the collateral to the lender. The funds could be used for the purchase of inventory, capital equipment, expansion or working capital. Participating lenders are commercial banks, development banks and credit unions.