The EBRD is providing a trade finance limit of up to $75mn to Al Mansour Bank for Investment, one of Iraq's leading private-sector lenders, to expand cross-border financing for Iraqi businesses.

The facility, worth about €65mn, comes under the development bank's Trade Facilitation Programme and will offer guarantees and cash advances to support the bank's trade finance activities. It is designed to cover the political and commercial payment risks tied to import and export transactions, in a market where access to international banking and trade-related financing remains limited.

The bank, majority-owned by Qatar National Bank Group, is expected to use the line to grow its trade finance business, strengthen its correspondent banking network and widen the availability of trade finance across Iraq.

The EBRD said the investment would also help importers and exporters reach international markets and increase financing for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises across agriculture, construction, manufacturing and consumer goods.

The facility is backed by EBRD-funded technical assistance, including advisory support, specialised training, participation in the development bank's trade finance e-learning programme, and workshops on compliance, fraud prevention and risk management.

Established in 2006 and operating eight branches across Iraq, Al Mansour Bank for Investment provides retail and corporate banking, trade finance and treasury services. 

The deal is the EBRD's second in Iraq and follows the pattern of its debut there. The development bank began operations in the country in September 2025 and made its first-ever Iraqi investment in December, a $100mn trade finance facility for the National Bank of Iraq, the country's largest private bank, majority owned by Capital Bank of Jordan.

Both deals run through the same Trade Facilitation Programme, launched in 1999, and target the same gap in trade financing for Iraqi importers, exporters and smaller businesses.

Iraq's entry into the EBRD's map came during a record year for the lender. The development bank invested €16.8bn across its regions in 2025, financing 640 projects and extending its reach for the first time to both Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa, with three-quarters of the total going to the private sector. Its southern and eastern Mediterranean operations, the regional grouping that now includes Iraq, reached a record €2.8bn over the same period, of which 86% went to private borrowers.