The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a synthetic securitisation deal with UniCredit Bank, marking the EBRD’s first capital relief transaction in Romania.
The agreement involves the EBRD providing credit protection of up to €77.5m ($87.92m) on the mezzanine tranche of the securitisation.
The underlying securitised portfolio consists of SME and corporate loans originated by UniCredit Bank.
In a statement, the EBRD said: “The transaction enables UniCredit Bank, a long-standing partner of the EBRD in Romania and a leading bank in the country, to enhance its capital resilience by achieving risk-weighted asset relief and to expand its lending capacity to the real economy.”
UniCredit Bank has committed to using the risk-weighted asset relief to support new lending for SMEs and corporations.
Additionally, an amount equal to 120% of the EBRD guarantee will be allocated to projects supporting climate action and environmental sustainability, aligning with the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition criteria.
The transaction is structured to meet the requirements for significant risk transfer under the European Union’s Capital Requirements Regulation.
The EBRD’s partnership with UniCredit Bank seeks to broaden the adoption of the significant risk transfer structure, enabling partner banks to leverage synthetic securitisation in Romania.
The EBRD noted: “As a highly promising market in central and eastern Europe, Romania presents significant opportunities for growth and innovation in this area, positioning synthetic securitisation as a transformative tool to enhance risk management, optimise capital allocation and foster financial resilience.”
UniCredit Bank is active in various financial sectors, including project and corporate finance.
The EBRD is an institutional investor in Romania, with more than €11.7bn invested in 562 projects.
Earlier this year, UniCredit introduced the “UniCredit for CEE 2025” programme, allocating €2.3bn to support SMEs in Central and Eastern Europe.
“EBRD and UniCredit Bank sign synthetic securitisation deal in Romania” was originally created and published by Leasing Life, a GlobalData owned brand.
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