The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided a €7.5mn unfunded portfolio risk-sharing facility to Ukrsibbank in Ukraine to unlock €15mn of new financing for the private sector amid the ongoing war in the country, the bank said in a statement on December 19.

The instrument will cover up to 50% of Ukrsibbank’s credit risk on new loans within a portfolio of up to €15mn, enabling the Ukrainian lender to extend much-needed finance to businesses in critical industries such as agriculture, food processing, retail, transport and pharmaceuticals. This will preserve food security and safeguard livelihoods.

The EBRD facility will be supported by first-loss risk cover funded by the EBRD Crises Response Special Fund (USA, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark) as part of the bank’s resilience package arrangements.

Food security and the private sector are among the five key areas in which the EBRD is focusing its support for Ukraine’s real economy during the war.

Ukrsibbank is one of the largest lenders on the Ukrainian market, with a strong presence and wide-ranging expertise in supporting the private sector and agribusinesses.

Since the start of the full-scale war, the EBRD has signed 17 similar transactions with nine partner financial institutions in Ukraine, facilitating loans worth more than €710mn to Ukrainian businesses.

The EBRD is a committed and steadfast partner of Ukraine. Over the last 30 years, the bank has been the largest institutional investor in the country, with cumulative investment of more than €18bn in more than 500 projects.

In October 2023 the EBRD reached its target of deploying at least €3bn of financing in Ukraine’s real economy in response to Russia’s war on the country in 2022-23.