EBRD and UniCredit sign their first synthetic securitisation in Romania

EBRD provides up to €77.5 million in credit protection to UniCredit Bank S.A Transaction to enhance UniCredit Bank’s capital resilience, increase lending capacity UniCredit Bank to extend new lending to private sector, including for green projects   The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is advancing the broader use of innovative financial instruments in Romania by signing a synthetic securitisation deal with UniCredit Bank S.A. (UniCredit Bank). It is the EBRD’s first capital relief transaction in Romania and UniCredit Bank’s first synthetic securitisation issuance.   The EBRD is providing credit protection of up to €77.5 million on the mezzanine tranche of a synthetic securitisation in the form of an unfunded guarantee. The underlying securitised portfolio is a granular portfolio of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and corporate loans originated by UniCredit Bank.   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 redeploying the risk-weighted asset relief achieved to new lending for SMEs and corporations in the country. An amount equal to 120 per cent of the EBRD guarantee will be dedicated to projects that support climate action and environmental sustainability, aligned with the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition (GET) criteria.   The transaction has been structured in such a way as to satisfy the requirements for significant risk transfer (SRT) under the European Union’s Capital Requirements Regulation and to achieve simple, transparent and standardised eligibility (subject to all customary approvals), promoting transparency and higher transaction standards.   Through its partnership with UniCredit Bank, the EBRD seeks to broaden the adoption of the SRT structure, enabling partner banks to leverage synthetic securitisation in Romania. 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.   The transaction is part of the UniCredit ARTS programme related to SRT transactions. It also confirms UniCredit’s strategy to increasingly use SRT as an effective tool to enhance capital efficiency, with a view to expanding it further to new asset classes and new legal entities in the UniCredit Group in central and eastern Europe. UniCredit Bank GmbH acted as sole arranger for UniCredit Bank S.A..   UniCredit Bank S.A. is a systemically important bank in Romania, active among others in project, structured and syndicated finance, corporate finance and export finance. The bank has also built a strong position in leasing and consumer financing. UniCredit Bank S.A. is a member of UniCredit Group, a European commercial banking group operating in Italy, Germany and central and eastern Europe. The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Romania, with more than €11.7 billion invested in 562 projects to date.