By Tom Arnold
LONDON (Reuters) – JPMorgan’s development finance institution which aims to fund more than $100 billion in activities per year is looking to back more supply chain deals to help fight COVID-19 in developing countries, a bank executive told Reuters.
Some emerging markets such as India have struggled with supplies of vaccines and other medical equipment in the wake of the pandemic.
“We’d like to do more transactions that have development and impact at their heart,” said Faheen Allibhoy, managing director of the institution.
The vaccine supply chain, gender-focused lending, water and food security, and climate-smart agriculture are areas where the institution will look to focus, Allibhoy said.
The JPMorgan Development Finance Institution was set up last year and aims to fund more than $100 billion annually in development activities from investment banking deals, with extra contributions from its markets businesses.
In 2020, the institution qualified 437 transactions as development finance worth a total of $146 billion.
It has helped with bonds for the governments of Morocco and the Dominican Republic, where the funds raised are aimed at helping companies affected by the pandemic and financing the state budget, respectively.
In 2021 it is also focusing on more deals where the bank acts as a financing structuring agent, having in February completed its first in Africa, a $620 million deal involving Liquid Telecom, Allibhoy said.
This month, the bank announced plans to finance and facilitate more than $2.5 trillion over 10 years to advance long-term solutions that fight climate change and contribute to sustainable development.
(Editing by Jason Neely)
