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Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade
About FAST
A global, member driven, non-profit association, FAST represents lenders and producers dedicated to bringing sustainable products to market.
FAST brings together this diverse group of stakeholders for the first time to work collectively to increase the number of producers in developing nations who can successfully access quality trade finance, tailored to their business needs, as they enter sustainable markets.
Upcoming Events
- 2009 EAFCA Conference & Exhibition - 12 Feb 2009 - 14 Feb 2009 in Kigali, Rwanda
Other News
- FAST at Work in Nicaragua - 25 Aug 2008
- FAST Partners with Ramacafe - 22 Jul 2008
- FAST Global Membership Drive: Funding from Citi and Lodestar - 16 May 2008
- Citigroup and Cordaid Award Grants to Support FAST - 20 Aug 2007
FAST's support continues to grow with new members joining each week, doubling to over 100 since the summer. The newcomers to push FAST over 100 are Cafetalera Los Compadres and UCA Miraflor, major cooperatives from Nicaragua, and the Agence Africaine pour le Développement International, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Benin. FAST is very proud to welcome its 48 new members, and looks forward to expanding its representation of the sustainable trade finance arena.
More than 600 producers from across Latin America met with representatives of top social lending institutions for the first time at a FAST-organized panel part of the Ramacafe International Coffee Conference held in September.
The event put a spotlight on some of FAST's key lending members and associates including Alterfin, Root Capital, Shared Interest, and Verde Ventures. The networking event enabled lenders to present their unique financial services available to sustainable producers in Latin America and to field access-related financing questions from an enthusiastic group of producer participants. FAST then facilitated further outreach and dialog by hosting a 'trade finance' booth where lenders and producers met for more in-depth discussions. As well, all FAST members received a 20% discount on their registration fees for Ramacafe.
Read more: Bridging the Finance Gap in Latin America.Many people have now come to accept the need for a social performance bottom line in microfinance to complement a financial performance bottom line, as was demonstrated at a recent "Taskforce" meeting in Paris. Following in the footsteps of microfinance, FAST will work closely with the socially focused lending community to develop an Impact Assessment Tool aimed specifically for use by lenders who cater to the sustainable small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs) sector.
Read more: Social Performance Taskforce Informs FAST's Social Impact Assessment Work.
