Deutsche Bank, World Bank Launch $1 Billion Platform to Expand Access to Trade Finance in Emerging Markets

Deutsche Bank and the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) announced the launch of a new partnership to create a $1 billion platform aimed at increasing access to trade finance in frontier and emerging markets.

MIGA promotes investment in developing countries to support economic growth, reduce poverty,  and improve people’s lives, by reducing risk and fostering confidence among investors and lenders through tools including political risk insurance, credit enhancement, and trade finance guarantees. The organization’s trade finance guarantees provide protection against losses resulting from the failure of a sovereign, state-owned bank or public authority to pay an unconditional financial obligation related to a trade finance transaction.

MIGA has been home to the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform, launched in 2024 a simplified, comprehensive menu of guarantee solutions to de-risk investments in developing countries. The new partnership with Deutsche Bank marks MIGA’s first standalone, programmatic trade finance portfolio guarantee platform with a global commercial bank.

According to Deutsche Bank and MIGA, the new platform is expected to help sustain and expand trade finance availability in markets where risk appetite is tightening and financing gaps are growing, supporting the World Bank Group’s broader commitment to creating jobs and economic opportunity for people in the world’s most underserved economies.

Junaid Kamal Ahmad, MIGA Vice President of Operations, said:

“Trade finance is the ‘working capital of nations’ and essential to achieving the job creation and economic inclusion needed to improve lives and livelihoods in our member countries. Our partnership with Deutsche Bank will help us leverage its extensive geographic reach and experience in trade finance structuring and execution, which aligns with MIGA’s goal to mobilize private capital as a multiplier for development finance.”

Under the new platform, MIGA will provide Deutsche Bank with MIGA guarantees to protect against the risk of non-payment in trade transactions by eligible state-owned banks, which often play a critical role in the import of essential goods or support of underserved client segments in frontier and emerging markets.

In addition to expanding access to trade finance, MIGA said that the platform also has targets to direct a meaningful share of the trade finance volumes to its priority areas, which include  International Development Association (IDA) countries and Fragile and Conflict-affected Situations (FCS), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), agriculture, health, and water.

Gerald Podobnik, Global Co-Head of Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank, said:

“This program with MIGA reflects our focus on expanding partnerships across the World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks and development finance institutions, enabling us to further scale our support for global trade and economic development. Targeted risk-sharing structures can help expand trade finance capacity in markets where it is most needed.”