The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, announces that it will buy USD 20 million in new common shares in Fibra, a Brazilian midsize bank. This marks the first equity investment in the Brazilian banking industry by the IFC, Business News Americas reports. In addition, IFC has granted Fibra a seven-year, USD 30 million credit line in Brazilian reais for domestic middle market lending operations. This will include lending to microfinance institutions (MFIs). The investment comes to roughly 8% of bank capital, which will rise to 520mn reais (USD 272mn) from 480 million reais (USD 247 million) with the issue of new shares.

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