The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a risk-sharing guarantee without upfront financing to Raiffeisen Bank to expand financing and provide new loans to Ukrainian businesses in the amount of EUR200 million. The relevant agreement was signed in London on September 9.
“The EBRD instrument will cover up to 50% of Raiffeisen Bank’s credit risk under new financing agreements for businesses operating in Ukraine. Under this mechanism, the bank will provide sub-loans to companies operating in critical sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, industrial production, pharmaceuticals, transport, and logistics,” the Ukrainian bank said in a press release on Wednesday.
According to the press release, this is already the fourth such risk-sharing agreement concluded by the EBRD with Raiffeisen Bank.
It is noted that 20% of the sub-loans covered by the EBRD guarantee will be provided to MSMEs for long-term investments in EU-compliant technologies and green technologies, strengthening the competitiveness of such enterprises in domestic and foreign markets.
Sub-borrowers who meet the conditions will also be able to receive EU-funded technical support and investment incentives, such as grants to complete their investment projects, under the EU4Business initiative. Larger incentives will be provided to businesses and households most affected by the war (e.g., those whose assets have been destroyed, damaged, or relocated), as well as to sub-borrowers that promote the reintegration of war veterans, people with special needs, internally displaced persons, and/or enterprises located in areas most severely affected by the war.
The EBRD guarantee will be supported by partial coverage of first-loss risk received from France and the EU under the Ukraine Investment Framework.
Since the start of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the EBRD has enabled more than EUR 3 billion in financing to Ukrainian borrowers through 37 similar instruments in partnership with 12 financial institutions.
Raiffeisen Bank is the largest privately owned bank in Ukraine and the fourth largest overall, with total assets of UAH 252.23 billion (6.5% of the system’s total assets) as of mid-year.
Raiffeisen Bank was founded in 1992. According to the financial institution, 68.21% of its shares are owned by Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI), 30% by the EBRD, and the remaining 1.79% by minority shareholders.
Agroholding Agrotrade received UAH 120 million in financing from Raiffeisen Bank as part of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) risk-sharing program, the agroholding’s press service reported on Facebook.
It is noted that these funds will be used to cover seasonal needs: payment for agricultural services, purchase of fertilizers and plant protection products, as well as preparation for a new production cycle.
In addition, the company will attract an EBRD grant under the Human Capital Investment Incentive Program. It will be used to improve working conditions for employees and will be financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the EBRD’s Special Crisis Response Fund.
“This result is the culmination of a year and a half of work with the EBRD. The negotiations were not easy, as our assets are located in the northeastern regions of Ukraine, which are considered high-risk. But we have proven that we are able to work effectively in any conditions, maintaining transparency, discipline, and responsibility to our partners,” said Antin Zhdanov, Deputy CEO for Economics and Finance at Agrotrade Group, whose words are quoted in the press release.
“Our cooperation with the EBRD under the risk-sharing program makes credit financing more accessible for agricultural companies, even in frontline regions. This has a positive impact on the recovery of the economy and the agricultural sector in particular,” said Larisa Bondareva, Deputy Chair of the Board of Raiffeisen Bank.
Analyzing the advantages of the project, the agricultural holding explained that Agrotrade gained financial flexibility and was able to purchase resources for production cycles on time, Raiffeisen Bank received guarantees for part of its loan portfolio, and the EBRD implemented its strategy of supporting business in regions affected by the war.
The Agrotrade Group of Companies is a vertically integrated holding company covering the entire agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage, and trade in agricultural products). It cultivates over 70,000 hectares of land in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans, and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a one-time storage capacity of 570,000 tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds for corn, sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20,000 tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of the Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand, Agroseeds.
The founder of Agrotrade is Vsevolod Kozhemyako.
In January-March 2025, Raiffeisen Bank (Kyiv) received UAH 2.21 billion in net profit, which is 12.3% less than in the same period of 2024, when it amounted to UAH 2.52 billion, according to the financial institution’s website.
It is noted that pre-tax profit decreased by 13.3% to UAH 2.91 billion, while net interest income increased by 3.9% to UAH 4.45 billion, and net fee and commission income decreased by 9.4% to UAH 0.45 billion.
It is noted that the share of interest income from certificates of deposit and income from interest rate swap agreements with the NBU in the first quarter of this year decreased to 13% from 21% in the first quarter of last year, while the share of government bonds increased to 21% from 15%.
According to the report, the decrease in net profit is partly due to an increase in employee benefits expenses to UAH 1.33 billion from UAH 1.10 billion in the first quarter of 2024, an increase in depreciation and amortization expenses to UAH 0.41 billion from UAH 0.32 billion and other administrative and operating expenses to UAH 0.69 billion from UAH 0.63 billion, as well as a decrease in net profit from foreign exchange operations to UAH 0.28 billion from UAH 0.40 billion.
At the same time, net loss from revaluation of foreign currency decreased to UAH 0.12 billion from UAH 0.15 billion, and net gain from operations with financial instruments at fair value increased to UAH 0.27 billion from UAH 0.21 billion.
In the first quarter of 2025, Raiffeisen Bank’s total assets increased by 4.1% to UAH 227.0 billion, and equity increased by 8.7% to UAH 30.43 billion.
It is also noted that on April 22, 2025, the bank remotely held an annual meeting of shareholders, at which it was decided to allocate UAH 0.7 million of the profit for 2024 to pay dividends to the holders of the bank’s preferred shares, part of the profit in the amount of UAH 2.14 billion to the bank’s reserve fund, and the remaining UAH 2.14 billion to be left undistributed and sent to the accounts of retained earnings of previous years.
The bank’s strategy for 2025 envisages business development in a highly competitive market amid the war while maintaining a universal digital model. Raiffeisen’s main focuses are digitalization of services, lending growth, customer retention and attraction, operational efficiency and risk management. In particular, the bank will continue to modernize its technological infrastructure and develop its ESG activities. The priorities will include: expanding lending to individuals and businesses, especially under the 5-7-9% programs, improving the digital user experience, diversifying customer acquisition channels, and cooperating with international financial institutions.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, at the beginning of the year, Raiffeisen Bank ranked 4th in terms of total assets (UAH 238.9 billion) among 61 banks in the country.
In 2024, Raiffeisen Bank (Kyiv) had UAH 7 billion of new investments in its portfolio, of which UAH 3 billion were for agricultural processing projects, said Yuriy Kozak, Director of Large Corporate Clients, Raiffeisen Bank (Kyiv).
“Since the beginning of the war, customer behavior has evolved. At first, they looked at the operating business, at working capital. In 2023, the demand for investment loans to replace machinery and equipment began to recover. In 2024, we as banks saw a real demand for investment. Clients have already come with new production facilities, new capacities, even new plants,” he said at the Ukrainian Investment Congress in Kyiv on Thursday.
Kozak noted that in 2024, Raiffeisen Bank’s portfolio included requests for new investments worth UAH 7 billion, of which UAH 3 billion was for agricultural processing: starch production, soybean processing, oil extraction plants, bioethanol and biomethane production. In addition, in 2024, a number of clients from the agricultural sector began to build new dairy farms.
He added that Raiffeisen Bank actively assists agricultural businesses and provides loans for 5 years. The bank offers foreign currency loans to companies engaged in export activities, which are quite cheap compared to foreign financing. Speaking about hryvnia loans, the expert noted that they are more expensive due to the political realities in the country, the discount rate and the cost of resources.
Ukraine’s economy in 2025 will grow by 4.9% with a slight decrease in inflation rate compared to this year to 8%, such macro forecast of Raiffeisen Bank (Kiev) was shared by the head of its board of directors Alexander Pisaruk.
“As for the dollar exchange rate, we expect devaluation of about 8% in 2025, and the exchange rate itself will be 45.5 UAH/$1 at the end of 2025. The baseline scenario is based on the hypothesis that security risks will improve from the second half of 2025,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Pisaruk noted that the bank always does stress tests taking into account not only the baseline scenario, but also the best and worst case scenarios.
“But we do not have two fundamentally different development scenarios. All preliminary forecasts on the end of the war did not come true. The head of the NBU said this at the meeting of the European Business Association, and I am ready to sign these words that let’s stop predicting and making mistakes, and let’s just work,” – said at the same time the head of Raiffeisen.
According to him, even if the ceasefire is at the end of the first quarter, it will not dramatically affect performance in 2025.
“It could have an impact on 2026. So even such important things affect with a certain lag. 2025 will be influenced by the current dynamics of inflation growth and the need to curb it,” Pisaruk said.
He added that he would not be surprised if the National Bank has to raise the discount rate as a result of faster-than-expected acceleration of inflation.
“Regarding deposit and lending rates in hryvnia, we do not expect them to deviate significantly from current levels,” the banker pointed out.
He reminded that this process began back in July, and the main factor is the dynamics of the NBU discount rate, which is very likely to be stable until mid-summer 2025.
“But the rates on deposits in US dollars and euros may slightly decrease in response to the relevant decisions of the Fed and the ECB, although they remain quite low in Ukraine now,” – suggested the head of Raiffeisen Bank.
Commenting on the impact of the situation on the front on the mood of the population and business, he stated that this is reflected in the foreign exchange market.
“We observe a significant increase in demand for cash currency, although the supply also remains high. This leads to an increase in interventions by the National Bank, which, fortunately, has reserves for this purpose, formed at the expense of international currency aid,” Pisaruk said.
According to him, the situation now seems quite manageable, as the external aid next year looks sufficient to finance the budget deficit and replenish the NBU’s foreign exchange reserves. The CEO also said that Raiffeisen Bank remains the main supplier of cash currency to Ukraine.
“And who is number two, I don’t even know, because the gap is huge. This is a complicated business – you need to know the counterparties, provide logistics. We know how to do it and have been doing it for decades”, – he noted.
As reported, the GDP of Ukraine, according to the State Statistics Committee, in 2023 grew by 5.3% after a decline of 28.8% in 2022. The National Bank of Ukraine in late October raised the forecast of economic growth for 2024 from 3.7% to 4%, and for 2025 – from 4.1% to 4.3%. At the same time, the NBU in late October worsened the inflation forecast for 2024 from 8.5% to 9.7% and worsened it for 2025 from 6.6% to 6.9% after it fell to 5.1% in 2023 after jumping to 26.6% in 2022. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on November 27 lowered the official hryvnia exchange rate to 41.6010 UAH/$1, the lowest value in its history. In general, since the beginning of 2024, the dollar at the official rate has appreciated by 9.5%, or by UAH 3.59, and since the transition of the National Bank on October 3, 2023 to the regime of managed flexibility – by 13.8%, or by UAH 5.03.
Raiffeisen Bank (Kyiv) has opened its first underground branches in Kharkiv and Dnipro, the bank’s telegram channel reported on Friday.
As specified, the underground branches will operate on the basis of existing ones and will serve customers in case of an air alert. Customer service is already available through a separate entrance leading to the underground premises.
“Underground workplaces allow us to ensure continuity of customer service even in the event of air raids. This is especially important in cities that are subject to constant shelling, which is why branches are forced to stop working on the surface for a rather long time,” Artem Nidzelsky, Retail Business Director of the center of the bank’s southeastern region, said in a statement.
According to him, the continuous operation of the branches allows to support local businesses and provide access to financial services. This, in turn, helps to minimize economic losses for entrepreneurs and the population.
“It is also extremely important that the new initiative creates safer working conditions for employees, allowing them to work more confidently and with less stress,” emphasized Nizelsky.
Underground branches provide all banking services as well as traditional branches, including account opening, deposits, lending, customer consultations and cash payments.
Raiffeisen Bank explained that the first underground bank branches appeared in cities located near the hostilities and constantly under fire. The number and duration of air raids in these cities is increased, customers have limited access to offline services and frequent problems with stable communication.
This step is expected to help maintain economic stability in the frontline regions, preserve customer confidence and provide a sense of stability and security when using banking services, which is especially important in wartime.
In the future, the bank plans to open separate underground branches in Kharkiv, Dnipro and other frontline cities.
