(Bloomberg) -- The Central American Bank for Economic Integration is considering a bond sale in the US market as soon as next month.

“This time we want to go out early” in the year, CABEI executive president Dante Mossi said in an interview, referring to the potential benchmark-sized trade.

CABEI, which is rated by S&P Global Ratings at AA, the third highest investment grade, sold $500 million of five-year bonds in February 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last month, it priced $250 million of 10-year bonds at a yield of about 5.229%. For context, Colombia, which is a shareholder of CABEI, priced 10-year dollar bonds to yield 8.125% in November.  

The lender, whose equity holders also include South Korea and Taiwan, is seeking to raise its credit rating by bringing other governments rated at the higher part of investment grade into the fold, said Mossi. Also, it’s in the process of increasing its equity capital to $10 billion from $7 billion and diversifying its loan portfolio by expanding financing to countries such as Dominican Republic or Panama, he said.

The lender, which has issued debt in currencies including Swiss Francs, Mexican pesos and euros, is considering selling blue bonds in euros and yen, said Mossi. Such securities — an emerging  type of environmental, social and governance-labeled financing — are used to fund goals such as business solutions for oceanic health, freshwater or to improve access to water and sanitation.

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