Canada in the running to headquarter new multinational defence bank

PIPPA NORMAN
Published November 13 2025, 4:15AM

Banks like this don’t come around too often. Most recently, the New Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Bank were established in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Similar institutions such as the World Bank Group are set up to mobilize capital to address issues affecting multiple countries. In the case of the DSRB, that issue is an increasingly divided world in which countries all over the world are increasing their defence spending.
A handful of institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan Chase & Co., ING Group NV, Commerzbank AG and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, have already signed on to help establish the DSRB.
The DSRB will be owned by member countries, but financial institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada, have signed on to help establish it.
The DSRB will work with national banks to co-finance countries and companies and indirectly, through guarantees, with commercial banks. This will make it easier for banks interested in lending to a defence company to offer more loans, at better rates, with less risk.
Drones, munitions, cyberinfrastructure, AI and other technologies with both civilian and military uses are among the projects the DSRB intends to finance.
If Canada were to win the bid for the DSRB’s headquarters, Sonya Shorey, the president and CEO of Invest Ottawa, is jockeying for her city to be the beneficiary. “Canada’s capital region brings together innovation, technology and national policy. Having the DSRB anchored here would integrate finance into that triad.”
Whoever lands the headquarters for the bank will have a home court advantage in terms of securing financing for their domestic defence industries, Ms. Shorey said.