The National Development Fund (Fonade) is created, with the purpose of fulfilling the objectives of this law. The resources of the Fonade shall be distributed under the guidelines and directives issued by the Governing Council for the beneficiaries of this law.
The Fonade shall be an autonomous patrimony, administered by the Technical Secretariat of the Governing Council of the Development Banking System (SBD). It shall have the joint guarantee of the State to establish or contract credit lines, in addition to its fullest cooperation and that of all its dependencies and institutions.
The administrative and operational expenses of the Fonade shall be budgeted and covered from its patrimony and independent of the resources allocated to the Technical Secretariat of the Governing Council. At the budgetary level, the surpluses, if any, shall be classified as specific for the purposes of this law.
For financial and indebtedness purposes of the Fonade, in addition to the good practices used in the field, the following policies shall apply:
For the fulfillment of the purposes established in this law, the Governing Council, through its Technical Secretariat, is empowered to negotiate, contract, and execute, autonomously, internal and external indebtedness of medium and long terms, up to a maximum indebtedness level equivalent to five point five (5.5) times the patrimony of the Fonade. The indebtedness shall be calculated based on the patrimony of the Fonade as of December 31 of each year, excluding short-term liabilities from the calculation; furthermore, indebtedness not executed in any year must be used in the following periods, in addition to the indebtedness of the corresponding year.
For the above, the Governing Council shall previously approve the following conditions:
1.1 A prior evaluation, before taking on the debt, of the repayment capacity of the Fonade, based on its own historical recovery performance. When the consolidated arrears of the Fonade Credit Fund exceed five percent (5%), new indebtedness may not be negotiated or contracted.
1.2 An evaluation of the comprehensive risk management associated with the Fund and a definition of the appropriate measures for their mitigation.
1.3 A technical justification regarding the projected demand for resources, taking into consideration the percentage and pace of placement of the Fonade Credit Fund.
- 2)Policy on financial instruments:
The Fonade may securitize its future income flows, its assets, or a predetermined set of assets and their corresponding income flows.
The securities from the securitization shall be negotiable according to the mechanisms and rules in force for the securities market, which may be acquired by any public or private entity, national or foreign, including pension fund operators.
The Fonade may hold investments in securities or other types of financial instruments, in accordance with the policies issued by the Governing Council.
In matters of administrative contracting, only the constitutional principles governing the matter shall apply to the Fonade.
Regarding human capital and the employment regime, the provisions established in this law for the Technical Secretariat of the Development Banking System shall apply.
The Fonade shall have a modern technological and digital platform, whose components shall incorporate the necessary elements for the control, transparency, and management of the Development Banking System and the Technical Secretariat of the SBD.
The Technical Secretariat of the SBD shall promote the necessary connectivity for interconnection with the computer systems of the member entities of the System, in accordance with the needs and strategies in this matter defined by the Governing Council of the SBD. The public entities that are members of the System are empowered to facilitate the aforementioned connectivity.
For the purpose of facilitating the payment of credit operations and other products under the scope of this law, the Fonade may have access to the National Electronic Payment System (Sistema Nacional de Pagos Electrónicos, Sinpe) of the Central Bank of Costa Rica. Jointly, the Technical Secretariat of the Development Banking System and the Central Bank of Costa Rica may establish various strategies for the deepening of digital channels, which contribute to the objectives of financial inclusion and market deepening.
The resources of the Fonade shall be allocated to the following purposes:
- a)As capital for the financing of credit operations, financial factoring (factoraje financiero), financial and operating leasing (arrendamiento financiero y operativo), microcredits, and projects in the agricultural sector, as well as other active operations that national or international uses, practices, and techniques admit as typical of financial and banking activity, according to the provisions that the Governing Council issues for these purposes.
- b)As capital for the granting of guarantees that back credits granted by the participants and members of the SBD.
- c)For non-financial and business development services, such as:
- 1)Training.
- 2)Technical assistance.
- 3)Preparation of sectoral studies at the national and regional level.
- 4)Research and development for innovation and technology transfer, as well as for the knowledge and development of human potential.
- 5)Comprehensive impact measurement of the SBD.
- 6)Management of microcredits.
- 7)Other actions that the Governing Council defines as pertinent for the fulfillment of the purposes and objectives of this law.
- d)To promote, publicize, incentivize, and participate in the creation, reactivation, and development of enterprises, through debt models subordinated to success (deuda subordinada al éxito), seed capital (capital semilla), and venture capital (capital de riesgo). For this purpose, the Governing Council shall allocate, annually, at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the resources from subsection h) of Article 59 of Law No. 7092, Income Tax Law, of April 21, 1988. The Fonade must apply international best practices, in order to develop these programs.
- e)For the financing of agricultural insurance premiums, or to finance the premiums of other productive sectors that so require.
The resources allocated in subsection a) shall be channeled through second-tier banking (banca de segundo piso). In strictly necessary cases, the Governing Council of the SBD may establish alternate mechanisms to channel the resources.
In the case of the funds allocated in subsections c), d), and e), the Governing Council shall be responsible for determining, under its policies and guidelines, which specific projects or which programs accredited by the members of the SBD may receive a percentage, in whole or in part, of the resources that are non-reimbursable, as well as the conditions for granting them, and the regulations and control mechanisms for their granting.
The administrating banks of the Credit Fund for Development shall provide credit to the Fonade with FCD resources at cost, so that it may channel them under conditions established by the Governing Council.
The resources that form part of the Development Banking System, as provided in Article 9 of this law, shall be exempt from all types of taxes and shall not be considered part of the minimum legal reserve requirement. This provision shall also apply to the financial operators that make use of these resources.