# Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF)

Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) is a Government / Public Body based in Caracas, Venezuela.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Government / Public Body
- **Headquarters:** Caracas, Venezuela
- **Region:** Latin America
- **Address:** Avenida Luis Roche, Altamira, Caracas, Venezuela
- **Founded:** 1970
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** caf.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/corporacion-andina-de-fomento

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

CAF was established in 1970 by the governments of Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, originally as the Corporación Andina de Fomento. Venezuela joined in 1973, cementing the Andean core. Today, the shareholder base stretches well beyond the cordillera — Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, plus Spain and Portugal as extra-regional members, all underpin a multilateral balance sheet that Standard & Poor's rates AA-. The institution deploys across three asset classes that mirror commercial banking rather than a typical development fund: sovereign loans, private-sector infrastructure credit, and technical-cooperation grants tied to project preparation. Its private-sector window targets energy, transport, water and sanitation, and digital infrastructure, with a growing mandate for green and sustainability-linked bonds. Member countries include Argentina and Ecuador, two of the region's most episodic market-access borrowers, and the portfolio's geographic concentration reflects that counter-cyclical DNA. In 2023, CAF approved $16.2B in total operations, with roughly one-third flowing to private enterprise and financial-intermediary loans designed to keep regional banks lending during tightening cycles (per the firm's annual report, 2024). Headquartered in a landmark tower in Caracas, CAF maintains a network of regional offices from Lima's Torre Siglo XXI to Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Panama City. The bank joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative in 2024, aligning its disclosure practices with peers at the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. October 2024: CAF opened its first office in the Caribbean — in Bridgetown, Barbados — extending its balance sheet eastward as traditional European DFIs retreat from middle-income lending. What structurally differentiates CAF from its larger cousins at the World Bank Group is speed. The bank's approval-to-disbursement cycle is materially shorter, driven by a governance model where borrowing countries hold majority voting power — a reversal of the Bretton Woods formula. That architecture makes CAF the first call for sovereigns that need liquidity without the policy conditionality that the IMF or IBRD would attach, and it explains why the bank's callable capital was doubled to $50B in 2023 to meet demand from members spanning Portugal to Paraguay.

## Sectors

- Infrastructure
- Energy Transition & Renewables
- Private Credit
- Education
- Healthcare Services

## Offices

- Lima, Peru
- Multiple Locations (Latin America and Europe)

## People

- Sergio Díaz-Granados — Executive President
- Carolina España — Executive Vice President

## Questions

### Who runs investment and credit decisions at CAF?

Executive President Sergio Díaz-Granados, a former Colombian Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, leads the institution's executive direction. Executive Vice President Carolina España manages day-to-day operations alongside a senior management team. The board of directors, composed of finance ministers and central bank governors from member countries, defines the overall lending envelope and strategic priorities.

### Does CAF operate like a sovereign wealth fund or a development bank?

Strictly a multilateral development bank. Unlike a sovereign wealth fund, CAF does not manage a discrete pool of national savings for return maximization. It raises funds through bond issuance, accepts capital contributions from shareholders, and channels the proceeds into loans, guarantees, and equity investments that advance development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

### What is CAF's posture on co-financing with commercial banks and other DFIs?

CAF actively co-finances with other multilateral development banks — notably the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the European Investment Bank — on large infrastructure projects. It also on-lends through private banks and provides A/B loan structures where commercial lenders participate in the B tranche, a model that has increased private-sector leverage on CAF's balance sheet.

### Which sectors does CAF explicitly avoid?

CAF does not explicitly publish an exclusion list organized by sector. Its environmental and social safeguards, however, restrict lending to projects with unresolvable physical-resettlement impacts, coal-fired power generation without carbon-capture, and extractive activities in UNESCO World Heritage sites. The bank's portfolio is net tilted toward infrastructure, not resource extraction.

## Related profiles

- [Corporacion Actinver](https://altss.com/profile/corporacion-actinver)
- [Corporacion Interamericana para el Financiamiento de Infraestructura Asset Management](https://altss.com/profile/corporacion-interamericana-para-el-financiamiento-de-infraestructura-asset-management)

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Last updated: 2026-07-06T00:32:29.949Z

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