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Loan to help major Russian bank focus on small business
$20 million to fund Rosbank push into regions
A $20 million loan from the European bank for Reconstruction and Development
will help Russia’s Rosbank diversify its business by pushing into the regions
to tap new markets and funding the country’s vibrant small businesses.
The five-year loan is part of a $50 million framework facility the EBRD has
approved for this privately owned Russian bank, whose traditional focus has
been on corporate banking but whose owners are committed to positioning it as
an independent universal bank.
The EBRD has also included Rosbank among the Russian banks whose letters of
credit it is ready to guarantee under its Trade Facilitation Programme, set up
by the Bank to simplify and accelerate East-West trade. The initial ceiling on
the EBRD’s guarantees for Rosbank under this programme has been set at $20
million.
After the completion of its merger with the OVK banking group, which has a
large network of provincial outlets, Rosbank will be well poised to extend its
reach into Russia’s regions and provide small business loans where they are
most needed.
This transaction achieves three of the EBRD’s constant goals in Russia, said
Kurt Geiger, Business Group Director of the EBRD’s Financial Institutions team.
It stimulates competition in the banking sector; provides an instrument
through which we can fund small businesses in remote areas of the country; and
allows us to work with its owners, not only making the bank more efficient,
but also helping achieve the highest standards of corporate governance and
transparency, Mr Geiger added at a signing ceremony in Moscow.
Rosbank is part of Interros, one of Russia’s key diversified groups which also
controls Norilsk Nickel, the world’s main source of palladium.
Rosbank is the successor to Uneximbank, whose debts to the EBRD and other
foreign creditors were restructured after the 1998 financial crisis.
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