Banco del Pacífico Targets $1 Billion in New International Financing After Landmark $500M JP Morgan Deal and $225M CAF Guarantee

Banco del Pacífico Targets $1B in New International Financing

Banco del Pacífico, Ecuador's second-largest bank by assets and the country's only state-owned commercial lender, announced plans to secure an additional $1 billion in international financing during 2026 -- a move that would nearly quadruple its institutional funding base from $517 million at year-end 2025 to approximately $2 billion.

The ambitious target follows two milestone transactions that have reshaped the bank's access to global capital markets.

The JP Morgan breakthrough

JP Morgan Chase extended a $500 million credit facility to Banco del Pacífico in late 2025, marking the first time the US investment bank has conducted a transaction with any Ecuadorian institution. Key terms:

Parameter	Detail
Amount	$500 million
Tenor	7 years
Grace period	18 months
Rate	Variable (market-linked)
Significance	First JP Morgan transaction in Ecuador

The deal is significant beyond its size. JP Morgan's willingness to lend into Ecuador -- a country that defaulted on sovereign bonds as recently as 2020 -- signals a broader reassessment of Ecuadorian credit risk by tier-one international banks. The seven-year tenor is notably long for Latin American emerging-market banking transactions, suggesting confidence in Ecuador's macroeconomic trajectory under dollarisation.

CAF guarantee unlocks SME lending

The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) approved a partial guarantee of up to $225 million in favour of Banco del Pacífico, designed to backstop an international financing operation of up to $500 million. The guarantee structure:

Component	Detail
Initial coverage	45% of financing amount
Maximum coverage	Up to 70% of outstanding balance (as repayment progresses)
Repayment terms	Up to 7.5 years
Purpose	Long-term SME lending

The CAF-backed funds are earmarked for three priority lending categories:

• Women-led SMEs -- addressing a persistent credit gap in Ecuador's entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Export-oriented SMEs -- supporting diversification beyond commodity dependence
• Agro-industry enterprises with sustainable practices -- aligning with Ecuador's agricultural export engine

CAF President Sergio Díaz-Granados stated: "We are mobilising international resources toward the productive sector and ensuring credit reaches women entrepreneurs and SMEs committed to international expansion and sustainability."

2025 financial performance

Banco del Pacífico reported strong results for fiscal 2025:

Metric	2025	2024	Change
Net profit	$206 million	$158 million	+30%
Productive-sector loans placed	>$1 billion	—	—
Total taxes paid	$110 million	—	—
Institutional financing base	$517 million	—	—

The bank's productive-sector lending portfolio reflects Ecuador's economic structure:

Sector	Share of lending
Fishing / shrimp	20%
Real estate / construction	16%
Commerce / vehicles / manufacturing	12%
Food industries	11%
Bananas / cacao / palm	8%
Steel works	4.8%

The heavy concentration in shrimp (20%) and agricultural commodities (8%) underscores the bank's exposure to Ecuador's export economy -- and by extension, to US tariff policy affecting these sectors.

Strategic implications

CEO Iván Andrade framed the financing push in structural terms: "It is fundamental to have access to capital markets from different sources -- that is where we are headed."

The strategy carries several implications for Ecuador's broader financial system:

• Benchmark effect: JP Morgan's entry establishes pricing and risk benchmarks that other international lenders can follow, potentially unlocking capital for Ecuadorian banks beyond Banco del Pacífico
• Tenor extension: Seven-year and 7.5-year facilities provide the kind of long-duration funding that Ecuador's domestic deposit base -- skewed toward short-term savings -- cannot efficiently supply
• SME credit gap: Ecuador's SMEs account for roughly 70% of employment but receive a disproportionately small share of formal bank credit; the CAF-backed programme directly targets this imbalance
• State bank advantage: As a state-owned institution, Banco del Pacífico benefits from implicit sovereign support, which may have facilitated the JP Morgan relationship

What to watch

Monitor the bank's progress toward its $2 billion institutional funding target through 2026, and whether the JP Morgan transaction catalyses similar deals for Banco Pichincha, Produbanco, or other Ecuadorian banks. The CAF guarantee's deployment rate -- how quickly the $225 million backstop translates into actual SME disbursements -- will test whether international capital reaches Ecuador's productive base. Track the bank's shrimp-sector exposure given ongoing US tariff headwinds (combined 18.78% duty) and the potential competitive impact of reduced tariffs on Indian shrimp.

Sources: El Universo, LatinFinance, CAF