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EBRD lends $25 million to help Russian small busines
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending the Russian
regional bank Uralsib $25 million under two complementary facilities to help
it boost financing for the private sector by on-lending the money to micro,
small and medium-sized businesses.
Loan agreements signed in Moscow today cover a $15 million four-year facility
as well as a separate $10 million five-year one under the EBRD’s Russian Small
Business Fund (RSBF).
Under the RSBF programme, the bank will finance micro and small enterprises
with loans up to $200,000. The SME facility provides funds the bank can
on-lend to small and medium enterprises in a range of $200,000 to $1 million.
Since 1994, the EBRD has disbursed over 160,000 loans with a cumulative value
of $1.3 billon under the RSBF, which receives funding support from the G-7
countries, Switzerland and the European Union.
Uralsib becomes the fourth Russian regional bank since September 2002 to join
the RSBF programme. In all, eight Russian banks are participating in the
programme.
The EBRD believes that this funding will stimulate competition in the growing
market of bank loans to small businesses and help the development of the
private sector of the economy.
The new facilities signed today will complement a $10 million credit line
under the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Program signed with Uralsib in October.
Uralsib is a private commercial bank with headquarters in Ufa, the capital of
the Bashkhortostan. It has more than 300 offices in 65 cities across Russia
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