The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is raising the capacity of its war-risk insurance scheme for Ukrainian businesses from €110 million ($123.2 million) to €150 million ($168 million), after Ukrainian insurers and their clients used up the existing limit, the bank wrote on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
The scheme, known as the Ukraine Recovery and Reconstruction Guarantee Facility (URGF), will expand its coverage to include the transport and storage of gas-related assets and goods temporarily stored in warehouses, the EBRD said. The facility currently covers inland cargo, motor vehicle damage, and railway rolling stock.
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The additional capacity is backed by donor coverage from the EU under its Ukraine Investment Framework. It will allow existing insurers INGO, Colonnade, and UNIQA to offer more war-risk cover, along with two insurers joining the scheme: USG, owned by the Vienna Insurance Group, and Universalna, owned by Canada’s Fairfax Financial Group.
The EBRD developed the URGF with Aon, a global professional services firm that manages the facility. Under the scheme, the EBRD guarantees global reinsurer MS Amlin against losses on war-related risks underwritten by participating Ukrainian insurers. The insurers, in turn, can obtain reinsurance coverage and widen their war-insurance offering.
The bank linked the expansion to the pressure on Ukraine’s economy. It cited intensifying Russian attacks on energy, transport, logistics, and civilian infrastructure, as well as the renewed blockade of Black Sea ports. Notably, reliable war-risk insurance is essential for companies to manage risk and keep operating.
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As per EBRD reports, the initial €110 million ($123.2 million) guarantee is fully deployed. It was backed by donor coverage from France, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. It supported more than €500 million ($560 million) of reinsurance coverage for goods and vehicles across nearly 10,000 policies.
The EBRD and Aon introduced the bank guarantee in December 2024 to help private-sector insurers in Ukraine cover domestic cargo, motor vehicle damage, and railway rolling stock. Francis Malige, the EBRD’s Managing Director and Head of the Financial Institutions Group, had exclusively announced the facility three months earlier, in September 2024.
Olena Hrazhdan is the Business Reporter at Kyiv Post, covering Ukraine’s markets, business, and economic policy. While she reports broadly on economic issues, her core focus is banking, finance, monetary and fiscal policy. Olena previously wrote for leading Ukrainian business media and became a Fellow of the International Monetary Fund’s Journalism Fellowship in 2024.