Following a recent commitment by Nato countries to invest 5% of their GDP to defence, global banks are backing a new bank that is being set up to support Nato countries and their allies finance their defence needs.
July 2025 saw UK chancellor Rachel Reeves and UK defence secretary John Healey endorse the creation of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), a new international financial institution owned by nations that will help deliver on the 5% of GDP pledge.
The DSRB's mission will be to harness capital markets in support of deterrence, readiness, and collective security. In this era of systemic threat, the new bank will ensure that the free world has the financial tools to defend itself.
European Parliament MEPs also voted for a resolution to create the DSRB in order to fund crtiical defence procurement, boost modernisation, and ensure supply chain resilience across Nato, the EU, and Indo-Pacific allied nations.
Developed by a nonprofit corporation - the DSRB Development Group - international coordination will be bolstered in collaboration with bankers, lawyers, defence investment specialists and senior policy leaders to design a dedicated financial infrastructure that will deliver resilient, bankable solutions in support of allied security supply chain ecosystems.
At the moment the DSRB is supported by Commerzbank, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Landesbank Baden-Wuttemberg and RBC Capital Markets. Participating banks will provide input on sovereign lending instruments, capital structuring, investor engagement, ratings advisory, risk and asset-liability management, and debt capital market access.
The hope is to ensure the new defence bank can secure private capital and there are expectations of a second wave of banking partners, investment firms and stakeholders to announce their buy in ahead of early September which will mark the start of formal engagement on the bank's structure.
Rob Murray, former head of innovation at Nato and CEO of the DSRB Development Group, says that "For too long, we have underestimated the role of capital in defence. The banks stepping up today understand that deterrence demands financial support - and this new institution is being built to deliver it."
Kevin Reed, president of the DSRB Development Group, adds: "This is not just about financing defence - it is about redefining deterrence for the modern era. In the twentieth century, deterrence meant industrial mobilisation. In the twenty-first, it means financial partnership.