Leasing Bolívar was one of the first companies to develop and implement leasing operations in Colombia and is the sixth largest leasing company in Colombia today. Leasing Colombia has maintained the largest share of the Colombian leasing market since its founding in 1981. Leasing de Crédito is the fourth largest, in terms of assets, of Colombia’s ten commercial financing companies specializing in leasing and has a 12 percent market share. Leasing del Valle has more than twelve years of market experience. Leasing de Occidente maintains a strong position in Colombia’s leasing market. The IIC granted a loan, denominated in Colombian pesos, to each of these five leasing companies. This is the first time that a multilateral institution operating in Latin America had obtained local-currency funding for granting localcurrency loans. The proceeds of the loans will be used to provide financing to small and medium-size companies in Colombia via medium- and long-term finance leases for upgrading and/or purchasing fixed assets. Colombian companies need such financing alternatives to carry out expansion projects that increase their production capacity and make them more competitive domestically and internationally. The loans, totaling the equivalent of $66 million, will primarily finance operations ranging between 12 million Colombian pesos ($5,000) and 390 million Colombian pesos ($170,000) and will have an average term of three to five years. By providing funding for financial leases in Colombia, where this type of funding is not readily available, the Corporation will be contributing to the Declaration of Nuevo León goal of trebling resources channeled to small and medium-size companies through financial intermediaries. More than 1,000 small and medium-size companies are expected to benefit from these five operations.