The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed an agreement on Monday to share risks on large loans amounting to EUR 50 million with Ukrainian Credit Agricole Bank (Kyiv), which will enhance its capabilities to lend to Ukrainian companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as stated in the EBRD's announcement.
"With the signing of this agreement, Credit Agricole has become the fourth partner bank of the EBRD in the Non-Financial Non-Recourse Risk Distribution Program for Ukraine. Previously, UkrSibbank (BNP Paribas Group), Raiffeisen Bank, and Piraeus Bank joined this program," the release notes.
According to the announcement, under this program, the EBRD will assume the risk for individual loans exceeding the equivalent of EUR 5 million, which Credit Agricole will provide to corporate clients of all sizes for a total amount of up to EUR 50 million, allowing the Ukrainian bank to use the freed-up capital to expand lending to SMEs.
It is specified that this project complements the partnership between the EBRD and Credit Agricole in portfolio risk distribution, which already exists under the EBRD's Resilience and Livelihoods Program (RLG). In 2022-2023, Credit Agricole entered into two agreements with the EBRD for portfolio risk distribution, enabling it to provide loans to Ukrainian companies totaling EUR 100 million.
Credit Agricole Bank is part of the Crédit Agricole Group (France). According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of November 1, 2024, Credit Agricole ranked 10th (119.95 billion UAH) in total assets among 62 banks in the country. The net profit of the financial institution for the first ten months of last year amounted to 5.50 billion UAH.
Since Russia's invasion in 2022, the EBRD has provided over EUR 6.1 billion to Ukraine, of which more than EUR 2.3 billion was in the last year.