On June 5, 2026, the Government of Belize brought forward landmark legislation to the country’s House of Representatives that would officially rename the long-standing Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to the Development Bank of Belize, a move designed to better align the institution’s public identity with its evolving core functions.
The Development Finance Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2026 was tabled by Prime Minister John Briceño, who laid out the rationale for the change in remarks to the legislative chamber. Briceño explained that the name adjustment is not a superficial rebranding, but a formal recognition of the role the DFC has gradually adopted over decades of operation. “All we’re doing is to amend it, to change the name from the DFC to the Development Bank of Belize,” Briceño told lawmakers. “Because over the years that’s the role that the DFC has taken on – the role as a development bank.”
Beyond the name change, the proposed amendment also expands the DFC’s existing powers and formalizes its accredited financial instruments to match the operational standards of a full development bank. The Prime Minister emphasized that the reorganized institution will remain distinct from Belize’s private commercial lenders, clarifying its core public development mandate. “This is not just a regular bank, like Heritage Bank, or Belize Bank, or Atlantic Bank. It is a development bank – a bank that’s there to help the development of this country,” he said.
Briceño added that the rebranding and restructuring will also modernize the 63-year-old institution, bringing it into alignment with peer development banks across the Caribbean region, such as the Development Bank of Jamaica.
First founded in 1963, the DFC currently delivers a broad range of public-focused financial services across Belize, including microenterprise loans for small local businesses, residential home loans, educational student loans, financing for productive domestic sectors, and capital support for renewable energy projects.