|
EBRD and Stolichny Bank sign first agreement under the Russian Trade Facilitation Programme
Under the US$ 100 million Russian Trade Facilitation Programme, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a US$ 20 million guarantee line with the Russian Stolichny Savings Bank, to enhance its capacity to provide trade finance services to its clients and to develop its trade-related business with its foreign correspondent banks.
Pierre Mellinger, Co-Director of the EBRD’s Financial Institutions team, said “Stolichny Bank is the first of a group of Russian banks to be signed up under the programme, which runs for two years. We hope this programme will progressively increase the availability of trade finance in Russia and contribute to the development of the country’s foreign trade. It is also designed to promote the participating Russian banks as reliable partners in the international financial community.”
Under the agreement with Stolichny Bank, which covers both Russian imports and exports, the EBRD becomes a guarantor of short-term trade finance instruments such as letters of credit issued by Stolichny. The EBRD will guarantee up to 80 per cent of the value of these instruments for the benefit of Stolichny’s foreign correspondent banks. These banks will be proposed by Stolichny Bank from its network of correspondents.
The Russian Trade Facilitation Programme was approved by the EBRD’s Board of Directors in December 1994. It will include ultimately as many as 10 Russian banks, agreements with several of which will be signed this year.
The EBRD is implementing similar programmes in other countries throughout the region, to stimulate their regional and international trade and develop related financial services largely unavailable since the collapse of the former planned economic system.
|
