PrivatBank, IFC launch $100 mln risk-sharing mechanism for SMEs, $20 mln trade guarantees
Ukraine’s largest PrivatBank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have signed agreements to expand lending to micro, small and medium-sized businesses: on risk-sharing of a new loan portfolio of $100 million and on a $20 million trade finance guarantee line from IFC.
“The start of cooperation between IFC and PrivatBank is a truly historic event. These are the first agreements between our institutions. I am confident that they will scale our lending capabilities and make them more accessible,” the bank’s press service quoted its Chairman of the Board, Mikael Björknert, as saying in a statement on Monday.
According to the press release, the risk-sharing agreement places a special emphasis on businesses founded by women: such loans are expected to account for 35% of the portfolio.
Regarding trade finance, it is noted that thanks to the signed agreement, PrivatBank joins the IFC Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP).
According to PrivatBank, in the first eight months of this year it increased credit support to Ukrainian entrepreneurs and businesses by 40%, to UAH 46 billion, and currently serves 748,000 entrepreneurs: almost 60% of operating legal entities and almost every second active Ukrainian private entrepreneur.