A task force co-chaired by the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Defence Secretary John Healey formally endorsed the creation of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB). The new multi-lateral and multi-national institution, structured to support the 5% GDP defence pledge adopted at the June NATO Summit, is designed to channel sovereign and private capital into defence, security, and supply chain resilience across NATO, the EU, and Indo-Pacific allies.
An unusual coalition of transatlantic financial institutions are backing the creation of the bank, including Commerzbank AG, ING Group N.V., JPMorganChase, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and RBC Capital Markets. The DSRB aims to professionalise and scale defence finance. It will serve as a dedicated vehicle for sovereign lending, debt capital markets access, and structured investment in critical infrastructure, with formal participation from major banks ensuring both market trust and technical sophistication.
Rob Murray, former NATO innovation head and now CEO of the DSRB Development Group, put it plainly: “For too long, we have underestimated the role of capital in defence.”
“Deterrence demands financial support—and this new institution is being built to deliver it.”
Kevin Reed, president of the same group, added that the 20th century relied on industrial mobilisation. “This is not just about financing defence—it is about redefining deterrence for the modern era,” said Reed. “In the twentieth century, deterrence meant industrial mobilisation. In the twenty-first, it means financial partnership.”
A full draft charter has been completed by the DSRB Development Group, which includes a mix of former multilateral bankers, lawyers, defence financiers, and security policy veterans. European Parliament members have echoed the push, voting in support of national-level adoption across the EU.
Formal talks around institutional structure and charter design will begin in September. Additional financial and sovereign backers are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The need for serious finance behind defence tech is a topic that has been developing for some time. Not only do defence tech startups have trouble opening bank accounts, they also find it difficult to source debt. The complex structural reasons behind this are intended to be solved by the DSRB, which would provide funding into the banking sector to support defence, and at the considerable scale needed to meet government pledges on defence spending.
We first covered this topic in March, in a podcast interview with DSRB CEO, Rob Murray, who will also be discussing the topic in more detail on a panel at Resilience Conference in September.
