Additional selection of banks for participation in the programme of encouragement of lending to small and medium enterprises announced

The Federal Corporation for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME Corporation) announced on April 29 the start of additional selection of banks for participation in its programme of stimulus of lending to small and medium enterprises. Applications will be accepted until May 17.

Applications are accepted from credit institutions with equity capital of at least RUB 50 billion. Before that only banks with at least RUB 100 billion in capital were eligible. The threshold has been lowered to improve the access of small and medium businesses in all Russian regions to cheaper loans by expanding the list of partner banks working with the SME Corporation. Another requirement credit institutions must meet to be put on this list is to have at least 15% of their total loan portfolio dedicated to small and medium businesses, or to demonstrate that the pace of growth of lending to small and medium businesses for the past fiscal year was at least on par with that of their total corporate loan portfolio for that period.

The programme of encouragement of lending to small and medium enterprises is carried out by the SME Corporation together with the Bank of Russia. It is a new tool of state support for lending to SMEs that carry out investments projects in the priority sectors of the economy, such as industrial manufacturing, construction, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications and tourism. The Bank of Russia achieves the discounted cost of credit to small and medium businesses by lending to the authorized banks at 6.5% APR under the Corporation’s guarantees. This results in an 11% APR for small businesses and 10% APR for medium-sized businesses for loans between RUB 50 million and RUB 1 billion intended for acquisition of plant and equipment, upgrade and reconstruction of manufacturing facilities, launch of new projects, and working capital replenishment. The total amount of loans per borrower is capped at RUB 4 billion.

Twelve major Russian banks currently take part in the Bank of Russia and the SME Corporation’s lending stimulus programme, including Sberbank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, Promsvyazbank, Alfa Bank, Rosbank, Bank of Moscow, and FK Otkrytie.


More details: https://www.eg-online.ru/news/313271

06/01/2016