RBC.ru lists Center-Invest Bank as one of the top ten Russian banks for SMEs. We rank:
— 5th in terms of the total value of loan funds provided in 2009 (RUR36bn)
— 7th in terms of the number of loans issued in 2009 (4,173)
— 9th for our loan portfolio (RUR10.8bn)
“Center-Invest Bank has been a leader in the SME banking services market since 1997,” says chairman of the bank’s board of directors, Dr. Vasily Vysokov. “In 2009 our success in this sector was partly thanks to our decision not to transfer currency risks to our customers or to raise interest rates for long-term loans. This allowed companies to complete existing investment projects and to strengthen their market positions in southern Russia. By putting forward the strategy “Southern Russia Versus the Global Crisis” in November 2008, we also helped our customers develop appropriate responses to the crisis. In 2009 we launched a new project called “Enterprise for All” (http://www.centrinvest.ru/ru/business_education.html), which is a public education programme designed to equip people from all sectors of the population with basic enterprise skills. As a logical continuation of this project, together with the Rostov Region Institute for Teacher Advanced Training and Retraining, we are holding a competition for school teachers to develop educational materials to teach schoolchildren about enterprise.”
Center-Invest Bank has been running programmes to support SMEs in southern Russia for thirteen years. Today, 40,000 SMEs and self-employed individuals choose to bank with us.
Our products for SMEs include: credit lines, investment project finance, equipment leasing, and trade finance. Thanks to our wide range of services and products and also our experience in this sector, we can quickly make decisions about lending to businesses in southern Russia and we can be flexible in our approach.
Center-Invest Bank has entered into agreements with the SME Guarantee Funds in the Rostov and Volgograd regions and Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai. These guarantee funds are helping our business customers by providing additional loan security.
For over four years now we have financed a “hot line” for SMEs which provides businesses in the Rostov region with free-of-charge consultations on legal issues (hotline.centrinvest.ru).
In terms of the number of loans made to SMEs in 2009, Center-Invest Bank is the top performing bank in the Rostov Region SME Development Programme: 4169 loans totalling RUR15.7bn.
Center-Invest accounts for 38.7% of the total number of loans made to SMEs in the Rostov region and for 27.6% of their value.