Mizuho Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group member focused on the private sector, have launched a $1 billion risk-sharing facility to expand access to supply chain finance across Asia Pacific. The three-year facility has a 50/50 risk-sharing structure, with IFC contributing up to $500 million and Mizuho supporting the other half. It covers supply chain finance assets including payables finance, receivables financing and pre-shipment financing.

The facility targets a persistent constraint in regional supply chains: suppliers and distributors, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), often need working capital well before buyers settle their invoices. Linking financing to the credit strength of larger buyers can shorten that funding gap and give smaller companies more capacity to meet production, inventory and operating needs.

For Mizuho, however, the partnership is also a transaction banking proposition. Ashutosh Kumar, Managing Director and Head of Transaction Banking for Asia Pacific at Mizuho Bank, said the bank will originate the assets and share the risk with IFC across multiple trade corridors. He placed the programme within Mizuho’s originate-and-distribute strategy and its broader ambition to support more of each corporate client’s supply chain ecosystem.

Risk sharing extends how far Mizuho can follow its clients’ supply chains

Kumar said discussions with IFC began around June as Mizuho considered how to expand its originate-and-distribute model. IFC’s development mandate to support businesses in emerging markets aligned with Mizuho’s presence across Asia and its role in cross-border trade flows.

Mizuho will originate transactions and discuss the underlying names with IFC, which will take risk alongside the bank. Kumar said the programme will span multiple corridors, including Indonesian and Vietnamese companies exporting into other Asia Pacific markets, and is intended to become broad-based rather than concentrated in one or two routes.

The underlying financing can also take different forms. Kumar pointed to large buyers and their suppliers using reverse factoring, receivables purchase programmes, pre-shipment financing and invoice finance. Individual financing may run for up to 180 days, while the overall programme will replenish transactions over three years.

This is where the partnership goes beyond adding another pool of funding. By sharing risk with IFC, Mizuho can use its origination capability to finance more of the commercial relationships surrounding an anchor client without carrying the entire exposure itself. IFC, in turn, can direct private sector capital towards smaller suppliers and distributors that fit its development mandate.

The $1 billion facility fits a broader effort to deepen transaction banking

Kumar linked the programme to a wider effort to capture more transaction banking business from existing Mizuho clients. He said there are customers where, for historical reasons, the bank has not done enough transaction banking business and is now working to expand those relationships.

He said Mizuho is also benefiting as its clients grow across Asia. Kumar said that where a customer is growing by about 5%, Mizuho has been able to grow its business with that customer by 8% to 10%, which he viewed as evidence of market-share gains.

The IFC facility gives that strategy a risk-sharing mechanism. Mizuho can follow a large corporate client further into its supplier and distributor network, while risk sharing expands the financing capacity available to support those flows.

SAP connectivity provides the access layer

Technology is intended to make that broader relationship easier to access. In June 2026, Mizuho became the first Japanese bank to adopt SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity, allowing corporate customers using SAP to connect to participating banks through a standardised channel. Kumar said Mizuho’s service is live in Singapore for eligible customers who have subscribed to the SAP module.

Adoption is likely to build progressively. Many corporate clients are focused on migrating their enterprise resource planning systems to SAP S/4HANA. Kumar said that migration is currently the priority and that Mizuho expects use of SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity to increase substantially once clients have completed it.

That sequencing matters. Connectivity itself does not create transaction banking revenue. Its value comes when easier access translates into payments, liquidity, trade and working capital activity inside the systems corporate treasury teams already use. The IFC programme adds financing capacity to the same relationship from another direction.

Digital assets extend the connector model into settlement and collateral

Mizuho is also exploring how digital assets could extend the same regional connector model into settlement and securities. In Japan, Mizuho, MUFG Bank and SMBC are working on a common framework for yen-denominated stablecoins. Kumar described the initiative as part of the bank’s broader digital asset agenda, alongside work involving tokenised Japanese government bonds (JGBs).

Kumar said Mizuho has about 60% market share of  Japanese government bonds (JGBs), held by non-resident investors, which he cited as one reason the bank is exploring tokenisation. He pointed to two potential uses: making JGBs more accessible to investors operating outside Japan’s time zone and making the assets easier to use within Mizuho’s network, including as collateral.

Mizuho Financial Group and Japan Securities Clearing Corporation also launched a proof-of-concept trial in April 2026 with Nomura and Digital Asset to test blockchain-based digital collateral management using JGBs.

Mizuho has also participated in a proof of concept around Swift’s blockchain-based ledger. Kumar said the broader industry discussion is moving from messaging and orchestration to how transactions ultimately settle, given Swift’s traditional role in financial messaging.

These initiatives remain at an earlier stage than the IFC facility or SAP connectivity. Kumar discussed them as work in development and proof of concept, not as established commercial transaction banking products.

AI is being tested across productivity, operations and technology

Artificial intelligence is another part of Mizuho’s operating agenda. Kumar said employees have access to Wiz Chat, Mizuho’s internal generative AI tool, which can be used for tasks such as summarising reports. The bank is also testing AI agents for repetitive manual work and using AI to support technology development and code writing.

At Sibos, Kumar said the discussion was not limited to productivity. Banks are also comparing how to manage AI-related risk, including cyber security and the controls required as AI is used more widely. That places AI alongside digital assets as an area where Mizuho is experimenting while the operating and risk models continue to develop.

The test is how much more of the client ecosystem Mizuho can capture

The $1 billion partnership makes the regional connector strategy more concrete, but it is one part of a wider build-out. Risk-sharing with IFC extends Mizuho’s financing capacity; SAP connectivity gives corporate clients a more embedded route into the bank; and the stablecoin, JGB and Swift ledger work explores how settlement and collateral could operate on newer infrastructure.

Kumar’s commercial measure remains relationship depth. Mizuho wants a larger share of the payments, trade, liquidity and working-capital activity generated as clients and their supply chains grow, while using technology to make those services easier to access and operate.

The IFC facility provides the clearest near-term test because it is already a three-year, $1 billion programme tied directly to client supply chains. The other initiatives are at different stages of maturity, but they point to the same strategic question: whether Mizuho can turn regional connectivity, shared risk and emerging settlement infrastructure into a deeper transaction banking relationship with its clients.