“How can a multilateral development bank scale risk-sharing and blended-finance structures with local financial intermediaries to crowd in private capital for underserved markets in its countries of operation?”
The EBRD is a multilateral development bank founded in 1991 to support post-communist economic transition in Europe and Central Asia, and now operates across over 35 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Its core activity is providing loans, equity investments, guarantees, and trade facilitation to private-sector businesses and financial intermediaries, often with a development mandate (gender, SME, green economy). Unlike commercial banks, it does not operate a retail banking franchise; its embedded finance footprint consists of wholesale lending programs, supply chain finance facilities, and risk-sharing arrangements with local partner banks, rather than consumer-facing fintech products.