Corporación Andina de Fomento (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.

CAF is a multilateral development bank owned by 21 sovereign nations plus 13 private banks from the Andean region. Its paid-in capital and callable capital — doubled to $50B in 2023 — sit behind a balance sheet that typically carries AA-/Aa3 credit ratings. Member-country guarantees, not deposits, back CAF's own bond issuance in global capital markets.

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.

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.

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.

Operationally, CAF runs a single balance sheet, but underwriting teams are split between public-sector sovereign loans — typically large, policy-tied programmatic credits — and private-sector infrastructure finance, where credit analysis mirrors commercial project-finance underwriting. Private-sector loans are priced closer to market rates and frequently include syndication to commercial banks.

CAF does not operate a separate foundation in the manner of a private family office. Its technical-cooperation facility funds project-preparation studies, institutional-capacity building for sub-national governments, and knowledge-sharing programs across Latin America. The CAF Gallery in Caracas also administers an art collection focused on Latin American sculpture — a cultural, not grant-making, activity.