On October 31, the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine approved the large‐scale ‘Restart Lending’ project, which includes the introduction of a new credit guarantees scheme for loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, which is supported by the German-Ukrainian Fund (GUF).
To accelerate the implementation of the credit guarantee scheme, the GUF, in cooperation with its partner banks, will allocate a portion of equity for testing the mechanism within its pilot phase.
The introduction of the credit guarantees scheme is foreseen in the GUF Development Strategy 2020, as well as in the SME Development Strategy 2020, prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.
The initiative complements the GUF’s participation with KfW in the EU4Business SME Finance Facility, which aims to stimulate local currency lending, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Ukraine that are not earning foreign currency and cannot afford the high costs of borrowing.