The European Rearmament Bank (ERB), a plan to establish a state-backed provider for funding to European defense, has suggested a merger with the Defense, Security, and Resilience Bank (DSRB) to coordinate their activities and enhance their request to governments.
A leader of the ERB initiative, Guy de Selliers, said on Tuesday at an event in Berlin that “I’ve written to them (DSRB) last week to say that we would like to merge the two teams because it’s not helpful to have two organizations both talking about creating a multilateral bank and competing with each other.”
Therefore, the DSRB, tried to reach by Reuters on Wednesday, said it doesn’t comment on speculation. Multilateral lender’s website reported that Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan lead a group of half a dozen banks that support DSRB.
Both ERB and DSRB seek to establish an institution with the highest rating (AAA), the fastest way to raise capital to fund European defense procurements, but have different membership and lending provisions.
However, ERB is concentrated on the members of the European NATO and market-rate lending. DSRB has attempted to have a wider membership that includes Canada.
The ERB leader said in Berlin that negotiations with governments are underway, but only the Polish government has expressed support for the initiative.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Polish Foreign Ministry was not immediately responding to a comment request.
“We’ve talked to lots of governments, and we’ve had very positive responses. Nobody’s been able to come up with a fatal flaw,” de Selliers added.
He further stated that France has commended the proposal but has lamented on sovereignty and financial ability. The team indicated that it hopes the country will “come around.” A spokesperson for the French Finance Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
