The International Finance Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group, signed a 200 million dollars gender bond to Itaú Unibanco, the largest private financial institution in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The resources are intended to support Itaú’s loan program for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Brazil, with special focus on businesses based in underserved regions of the North and Northeast of the country.

The investment is part of IFC’s Banking on Women (BoW) initiative. The project is also supported by the Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility (WEOF) and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) through a performance-based incentive. WEOF is an initiative launched by IFC, in partnership with the Goldman Sachs Foundation, to help expand access to capital for women entrepreneurs in developing countries and demonstrate the commercial viability of investing in women.

IFC had previously financed Itaú through a 300 million dollars green bond issued in 2022, to support lending for the acquisition of climate-smart vehicles in Brazil.