Orient Express Bank has an option to fix the interest rate on this loan, the fifth RSBF loan to be made by the EBRD this year in addition to the bank’s other small business loans.
The three-year loan to Orient Express Bank, which has the second largest banking portfolio in the Russian Far East after the State Savings Bank Sberbank, is being made within the framework of the EBRD’s oldest grassroots lending program in Russia, the Russia Small Business Fund (RSBF).
A total of 18 Russian banks are participating in the RSBF program which has since its inception in 1994 disbursed around 570,000 loans totaling over $8.3bn to Russian borrowers.
EBRD managing director for Financial Institutions Nick Tesseyman said this loan will enable Orient Express Bank to extend the maturity of its rouble financing for MSME’s, a sector which has long faced problems in accessing finance but which particularly suffered during the crisis when many banks were forced to cut back lending.
