The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) gathered its dealer group at LSEG’s New York offices to walk through a year that has brought three ratings upgrades, a US$3 billion capital increase and the most substantial rewrite of its charter in three decades.
Executive President Gisela Sánchez ranked the charter reform, agreed in Oviedo, Spain, in June, alongside the only comparable moment in the bank’s 66-year history.
“To have the opportunity and the vision to open the 51% of our capital to include the Dominican Republic and Panama as Series A shareholders is as significant as what happened in 1992,” she said, referring to the decision that first admitted non-regional shareholders.
Capital increase
The governors approved CABEI’s ninth general capital increase, lifting authorized capital from $7 billion to $10 billion. They also collapsed the bank’s three member categories into two (Series A and Series B). Panama and the Dominican Republic will eventually sit with the founding five inside Series A.
“That is a showcase of the unwavering and unique shareholder support afforded to CABEI by its members and their confidence in a clear path toward becoming a AAA institution,” Chief Financial Officer Humberto Rodríguez said.
As Series A shareholders, Panama and the Dominican move to the 23% exposure limit the founders enjoy, freeing roughly US$2 billion of lending capacity for two of the region’s fastest-growing economies. The reform also leaves about 11% of authorized capital unsubscribed and available to potential new, highly rated members.
Rating actions
CABEI has collected seven positive rating actions in the space of a year. S&P and JCR both have it at AA+, and Moody’s upgraded it to Aa2 with a positive outlook in July. That is 21 upgrades since 2002 with no downgrade on the record.
“Under our institutional and financial strategy, we have a clear purpose of becoming a AAA-rated institution,” Rodríguez said. “I think we have a good shot of making it.”
The numbers underneath: net income of $277.9 million in 2025, a second consecutive record after $268.4 million in 2024, with 2026 projections at around $300 million. Total assets reached $19.8 billion at year-end, up 8%. Liquid assets cover 34.8% of the balance sheet, the S&P risk-adjusted capital ratio stands at 28.2% against a 23% triple-A threshold, and no loan is in arrears.
Diversification and funding
Concentration has long been the drag on CABEI’s rating, and it is shifting. Lending outside the founding five went from 19% in 2023 to 27% in 2025 and should clear 31% this year, helped by a $500 million loan to Mexico’s CFE, the first Mexican operation in more than a decade, and a newly approved $100 million loan to Colombia.
Four exposure exchange agreements worth $2.1 billion have accelerated it, among them the first such deal between AA rated MDBs and the first asymmetric structure, signed with single-A FONPLATA. Rodríguez said further exchanges are under negotiation with triple-A institutions lending outside CABEI’s geography.
On the funding side, the bank has issued eight benchmark transactions since 2020. January’s $2 billion three-year drew a $10 billion book, and became the largest social bond issued by a Latin American supranational issuer, while a second sterling trade priced at the tightest spread any Latin American issuer has achieved in that market. CABEI has now issued in 30 currencies and completed 37 ESG placements worth more than $11 billion. A refreshed $15 billion MTN program went live in July.
The funding cost gains feed through to the loan book. Lending rates have fallen by 80 to 95 basis points over three years, saving member countries around $690 million against their national budgets over the next five.
Sánchez closed on Vision 2040, a long-range regional investment agenda drawing on the experience of two CABEI shareholders, Korea and Taiwan, that industrialized inside three decades. “Hopefully all of you will be part of this story,” she said.
