Development Finance Limited

Development Finance Ltd (DFL) has been in existence for 35 years. The business environment in which the Company operates has evolved considerably over the years, especially in Trinidad and Tobago. Our home country now has an Investment Grade rating and is a major exporter of natural gas, petro-chemicals and oil. However, the purpose of the Company has remained the same. That has driven the Company to raise its standards as a licenced financial institution and to widen its scope of operations. The Company has also developed in step with the new economic environment in the Caribbean. DFL is now a regional development bank, a first-class financial institution serving the Southern and Eastern Caribbean.

The company's vision, core business and strategy

DFL is dedicated to lending to Small Enterprises and Medium-sized Enterprises. Now there is a more fundamental need caused by globalization processes. While globalization shortened the horizons of Caribbean investors in the last decade compared with earlier entrepreneurs, it has also encouraged a new spirit of entrepreneurship, a new generation.

Many firms in the manufacturing sector have to re-structure in order to orient their business in harmony with fundamental changes in market dynamics and supply lines. The Tourism sector in the Caribbean is being re-shaped by the ultra-wide and all-inclusive definition of "tourist". Agro-industry has not developed synergistically with the tourism industry but has a renewed importance viewed in the perspective of "food security".  Services in all sectors must now rise to international standards and require different modes of organization and talent as well as financing. In small economies, involvement in these sectors once more represents a heightened level of risk for lenders. That "development risk" puts DFL back in the same business it first entered into 35 years ago.

For more information, contact dfl@dflcaribbean.com