MIGA to Support Agriculture and Small Businesses in Ukraine
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2025 – The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, home of the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform, has issued guarantees for two projects in Ukraine. One €100 million guarantee is provided to BNP Paribas S.A. to cover its investment in its Ukrainian subsidiary, co-owned with EBRD, JSC UKRSIBBANK. The other €85 million guarantee is to ING Bank N.V., Netherlands, to cover its investment in its Ukrainian subsidiary, ING Bank Ukraine. The guarantees insure the subsidiaries’ mandatory reserves held at the National Bank of Ukraine, effectively de-risking their balance sheets and creating space for continued lending.
In issuing these new guarantees, MIGA has combined its own resources with those of SURE TF and private reinsurance leveraging donor financing 1 to 3.7. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, MIGA has issued a total of $448 million in new guarantees in the country.
The guarantees will free up capital linked to JSC UKRSIBBANK and ING Bank Ukraine’s mandatory reserves, enabling both banks to expand their operations in Ukraine and maintain continuity amid the ongoing war. JSC UKRSIBBANK will leverage the freed-up capital to boost its lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), individuals, and corporations, particularly for energy efficiency. This support strengthens the private sector and helps preserve essential government services.
"MIGA’s commitment to supporting Ukraine during this critical time reflects our focus on increasing the amount of commercial lending capacity in the country,” said Hiroshi Matano, MIGA Executive Vice President. “These guarantees will help expand financial inclusion and empower communities, especially for small- and medium-sized companies and women entrepreneurs, in their pursuit of sustainable and resilient business opportunities.”
Through the MIGA-enabled lending, UKRSIBBANK will support approximately 34,000 clients during the guarantee period, including nearly 2,000 SMEs. The project aims to address the challenges of limited access to finance in Ukraine, particularly for SMEs, contributing to a more robust and dynamic financial system. On a best-effort basis, UKRSIBBANK has committed to allocate 24 percent of the MIGA-enabled SME lending to women-owned SMEs, and 50 percent of the personal finance lending to women retail clients. UKRSIBBANK has also committed to further support renewable energy and energy efficiency loans, and the climate finance share of the project is estimated at 20 percent.
Ukraine’s agriculture sector has suffered $83.9 billion in damage due to the Russian invasion. The MIGA guarantee will enable ING Bank Ukraine to allocate the freed-up capital into lending business, with around 80 percent of the funds allocated to the agriculture sector. The fund will support working capital facilities, trade finance services, and pre-export financing.
“BNP Paribas alongside its JV in Ukraine UKRSIBBANK, a full-fledged universal bank and one of the country’s systemically important banks, is engaged in supporting the resilience of the Ukrainian economy,” said François Benaroya, CEO of BNP Paribas Europe Mediterranean. “Thanks to MIGA, our aim with our teams and nation-wide network is simultaneously to finance new individuals’ projects and sustain SMEs ability to operate and expand sustainably, especially supporting women business initiatives.”
Currently, MIGA is the sole institution offering capital optimization guarantees in Ukraine. The projects complement IFC’s ongoing operations and pipeline projects in the financial sector, including a risk-sharing facility with UKRSIBBANK, benefiting mid-sized corporates.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to severely impact the country’s economy. Despite their vital role in delivering essential goods, services, and supporting reconstruction, SMEs face lending constraints. At the same time, damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure calls for increased lending to corporations and households for energy-efficient upgrades.
UKRSIBBANK has adopted a Gender Action Plan to improve data practices by defining, collecting, and reporting sex-disaggregated indicators and training staff in effective data strategies. These efforts, alongside the lending commitments, aim to tailor financial solutions, boost funding for women-led businesses, and drive their growth, innovation, and competitiveness, ultimately supporting job creation and economic resilience.
The projects align with MIGA’s FY24–26 strategy, which prioritizes support for fragile and conflict-affected situations, including coverage for the expropriation of mandatory reserves in Ukraine. They also leverage donor resources through the Support for Ukraine's Reconstruction and Economy Trust Fund.
At the Ukraine Recovery Conference, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, focused on the private sector, announced a series of new initiatives to support Ukraine’s private sector and accelerate reconstruction efforts. The initiatives aim to address critical financing needs, enhance energy security, and foster innovation in key sectors, including energy, technology, and finance. Read more here. Since February 2022, IFC has delivered $2.4 billion to support Ukraine's private sector, including $908 million in mobilized financing.
About BNP Paribas
Leader in banking and financial services in Europe, BNP Paribas operates in 64 countries and has nearly 178,000 employees, including more than 144,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main fields of activity: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services for the Group’s commercial & personal banking and several specialised businesses including BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval; Investment & Protection Services for savings, investment and protection solutions; and Corporate & Institutional Banking, focused on corporate and institutional clients. Based on its strong diversified and integrated model, the Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates, and institutional clients) to realize their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance. In Europe, BNP Paribas has four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg. The Group is rolling out its integrated commercial & personal banking model across several Mediterranean countries, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. As a key player in international banking, the Group has leading platforms and business lines in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific. BNP Paribas has implemented a Corporate Social Responsibility approach in all its activities, enabling it to contribute to the construction of a sustainable future, while ensuring the Group's performance and stability.
About ING
ING is a global financial institution with a strong European base, offering banking services through its operating company ING Bank. The purpose of ING Bank is empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. ING Bank’s more than 60,000 employees offer retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 100 countries.
ING Group shares are listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam (INGA NA, INGA.AS), Brussels and on the New York Stock Exchange (ADRs: ING US, ING.N).
About the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform
Initiated in 2024, the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform consolidates guarantee products and experts from across the World Bank Group at MIGA. It provides a simplified and comprehensive menu of guarantee solutions, enabling clients to select the instrument that best suits their needs. The platform streamlines processes, removes redundancies, and provides greater accessibility by de-risking investments in developing countries. Its goal is to boost the World Bank Group’s annual guarantee issuance to $20 billion by 2030. For more information about the guarantee platform, please visit: https://www.worldbank.org/wbgguarantees. Stay updated and follow us at https://x.com/MIGA and https://www.linkedin.com/company/wb-miga
Contact:
In Washington: Subhash Ghimire, (646) 894-1030 or sghimire1@worldbank.org