The vigorous growth in municipal responsibilities has been one of the most significant trends in Latin America for the last fifteen years. Although state and local governments are capturing a growing share of public resources, there is often a mismatch between new services or expenditure mandates, and the money and institutional expertise to actually perform them.

Astris Finance helps meet the expanding need for institutional and financial strengthening by local governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, by means of a threefold search for ways that local governments can:

• Improve their spending efficiency to optimize the service output produced for every dollar spent.
• Enhance their income generation capacity to deepen their financial base.
• Identify viable sources of long-term capital funding -- through direct investors and the capital markets.

Our most important public client service areas include:

• Infrastructure (or urban services) concession design and implementation
• Direct local and international capital market access for efficient finance solutions
• General financial management advisory services

Astris Finance provides the entire range of financial advisory services that investment banks and consulting firms specialized in government advisory usually provide. But unlike the others, we bring a wide scope of experience and knowledge together to help our clients meet their financial and policy goals. Key advantages we bring are:

• Dexia's worldwide expertise in project and public finance.
• Our thorough knowledge of Latin America's public policy framework and decentralization process.
• The use of multilateral credit institutions, like the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Andean Development Corporation, in funding investments and helping to support "upstream" advisory work.