BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 19 – Moody’s Ratings agency has affirmed a stable outlook for the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), highlighting that its strong support from member shareholders continues to be a key credit strength.
In its report, Moody’s emphasized that ITFC’s core mandate—to boost trade among member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) using Sharia-compliant finance—secures robust backing from its owners.
“Trade finance is of critical importance to ITFC’s shareholders and beneficiaries, particularly for key commodities such as oil and grains,” the agency noted.
The rating agency assessed member support as strong, even though the weighted average credit rating of its shareholders (Ba1) is lower than most of its peers with ‘A’ ratings.
“We consider member support to be strong, and assume that the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), as the corporation’s largest shareholder, would provide financial support if needed,” the report stated. The IsDB currently holds a significant 36% of ITFC’s paid-in capital.
Moody’s also praised ITFC’s ability to amplify its development impact far beyond its own balance sheet.
“Despite its relatively modest balance sheet… ITFC has successfully scaled up its impact through co-investments in a syndicate format. In 2024, co-investments were more than twice the size of ITFC’s own trade finance disbursements,” the agency said.
This capacity to mobilize capital enhances ITFC’s value for member countries and further strengthens shareholders’ willingness to provide support.
Underscoring this commitment, ITFC’s General Assembly authorized the issuance of up to $1 billion in callable capital in May 2023. Moody’s did note, however, that this amount has not yet been formally subscribed by a critical mass of shareholders.
Source: Trend News Agency