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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says its exposure to Ukraine poses "absolutely" no risk to the lender's triple-A credit rating, a senior bank official told the Reuters news agency Friday.
EBRD Vice President for Banking Matteo Patrone said the bank is "absolutely not concerned" even though Fitch Ratings warned last year that the EBRD and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development could lose their triple-A credit scores if Ukraine fails to repay its international development loans.
Patrone told Reuters that the bank's capital increase last year was "exactly to allow us to increase our exposure in Ukraine and continue supporting the real economy to the tune of €1.5 billion per year."
Last year, the EBRD governors approved a €4 billion increase to the bank's paid-in capital so it can invest more in Ukraine's reconstruction and war-time needs.
The added shareholder capital, which brings the bank's paid-in capital to €34 billion, "will be used to provide significant and sustained investment for Ukraine’s real economy, both in wartime and in reconstruction," the bank said at the time.
The lender, which has invested €1.5 billion in Ukraine per year over the last two years, said the capital increase will also allow it to double that investment, to €3 billion per year, once the reconstruction of Ukraine starts in earnest.
