News

On 12 March, Center-invest Bank hosted a meeting to review the first year of implementation of the Youth Business Russia programme of the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) in the Rostov Region.

Under an agreement signed on 15 March 2013, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to provide Center-invest Bank, southern Russia’s leading bank, with two three-year credit lines for a total of RUB1.5bn (RUB750m and RUB750m). For the first time in the EBRD and Center-invest Bank’s history, the agreement was signed using videoconferencing technology.

At the end of February, the chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Board of Directors, Dr Vasily Vysokov, attended the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) annual FinNet conference in Washington D.C. This year’s conference looked at holistic solutions to financial inclusion challenges. The participants discussed access to finance in various countries, with specific reference to agribusiness, energy efficiency, microfinance, small business, and finance for social projects and female entrepreneurs.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a loan of 900 million Russian rubles (around $29 million) to Center-Invest Bank to help it expand access to finance for small and medium enterprises in the Russia Federation’s southern regions.

Center-invest Bank has announced its results for 2012. The bank’s sustainable banking business model ensured its profitability, balanced growth and effective risk management. By providing affordable financial products for retail and business customers, and helping companies to modernise, the regional bank has retained its market positions in the Russian banking sector year on year. In 2012 Center-invest Bank won the banking services category of the 100 Best Goods of Russia competition.

Center-invest Bank is the only bank in the Rostov region to be a member of the Council of IT System Designers, which was set up by the Rostov Region’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications in November 2012. Specialists from Center-invest Bank have already attended the Council’s first meeting.

On 18 December 2012, the 250 top students from southern Russia’s leading higher education institutions were awarded scholarships from Center-invest Bank and the Endowment Fund for Education and Science in the Southern Federal District.The total scholarship fund this year was RUB5m.