Under an agreement signed on 1 October 2014, the International Investment Bank is to provide Center-invest Bank with a three-year EUR15m loan. The loan will be used to provide SMEs with finance for innovation, modernisation and energy efficiency projects.
The loan agreement was signed by Vladimir Liventsev, deputy chairman of the Board of the International Investment Bank (IIB), and Grigory Zhukov, chairman of the Executive Board of Center-invest Bank.
Commenting on the agreement, Mr Liventsev said that the loan would be made as part of the IIB’s Programme to Support SMEs and that it would boost entrepreneurship in the region. The objectives of Center-invest Bank’s SME loan programmes are wholly in line with the IIB’s own objectives and mandate.
Center-invest Bank is a leading player in southern Russia’s financial market. It accounts for a third of all long-term loans made to SMEs in the Rostov region for investment purposes. The bank successfully participates in programmes run by the Loan Guarantee Funds of the Rostov and Volgograd regions, Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai.
Founded in 1970, the International Investment Bank is an international financial institution that promotes social and economic development, human well-being, and economic cooperation among its member states. The Intergovernmental Agreement on the Establishment of the International Investment Bank and the bank’s Articles of Association are registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations. Its member states are Bulgaria, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Romania, the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic.
The IIB’s main activities are: 1) financing SMEs by providing credit lines to banks in member states, and 2) participating in syndicated loan programmes for investment projects in partnership with leading international financial institutions. In August 2014 Moody’s assigned an A3 investment-grade credit rating to the IIB. The bank is headquartered in Moscow. Further information is available on the IIB’s website: www.iibbank.org