More than three thousand Russian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be able to get a soft loan of up to 10 million rubles at a favorable reduced rate of 11.5%, the SME Corporation said.

"An entrepreneur will be able to use the loan capital for business development, working capital replenishment, financing of current activities and investments. You can apply for a loan online from anywhere in Russia," the press service of the Corporation said, noting that the application will be processed within 72 hours.

The new loan product of SME Bank is actually a new tool to support SMEs, which will have an impact on the whole system of market lending, the Ministry of Economic Development said.

According to Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation, today more than a million entrepreneurs are forced to take consumer loans at a rate of 16-19%. SME Bank's new loan product will make it possible to move "from consumer lending to civilized lending at a fair interest rate."

"The product developed by the bank involves lending to borrowers with default probability in the range of 0.6% - 6.4% per year, with loans to borrowers with higher risk within this range in the future will be secured by umbrella guarantee of SME Corporation," explained the chairman of SME Bank Peter Zaselsky.

He added that this will expand the number of support recipients and provide soft financing to those companies that were earlier denied by the banks.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Karina Kamalova