On September 25, at the roundtable discussions of the XXII International Banking Forum in Sochi, Center-invest Bank presented its experience in financing SMEs and implementing socially responsible banking principles.

Sergey Smirnov, Deputy Chairman of Management Board for Reporting, Analytics and Finance at Center-invest Bank, Ph.D. in Economics, took part in the discussion on the development of small and medium-sized businesses. Using Center-invest Bank as an example, he demonstrated that regional banks play an important role in SME lending — they do so more successfully, hold larger shares in lending to SMEs and individual entrepreneurs, maintain a high-quality loan portfolio, and typically have a good branch network in the regions.

The proactive stance of regional banks creates significant competition for federal players and, for example, in the Rostov Region, allows local banks to lend every tenth ruble to SMEs and every fourth ruble to individual entrepreneurs.

"Lending actively does not mean lending poorly. And here the Rostov Region is again in the top 5, but this time in terms of quality of the loan portfolio issued by local banks. This is primarily due to our knowledge of the local market, proximity to clients, and better risk assessment," emphasised Sergey Smirnov.

According to the latest data from the Bank of Russia and MSP Corporation JSC, the share of overdue debt in the SME portfolio in Russia is 5.0%, and in the individual entrepreneur portfolio — 10.9%. In the loan portfolio of Center-invest Bank, the share of overdue payments in SME loans is 0.95%, and in loans to individual entrepreneurs — 0.55%.

Moreover, according to the Expert RA rating agency, the bank ranks 5th in the country in terms of loan volume issued in 2024 and is among the top 3 credit institutions with the highest growth in their individual entrepreneur loan portfolio in 2025, according to a study by the Brobank.ru service.

The high quality of the loan portfolio at Center-invest Bank is the result of work based on the sustainable banking model. The Socially Responsible Banking roundtable discussion was chaired by Alexander Dolganov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Center-invest Bank. Center-invest Bank does not engage in interest rate wars, customer poaching, or profiting from customer difficulties. Instead of raising rates, the bank improves the quality of its loans.

Socially responsible policy is not charity, but a smart strategy for building the future. In the first half of 2025, Center-invest Bank clients increased their budget payments compared to the same period in 2024 in almost all regions where they operate: in the Rostov Region by 11.2% (according to regional authorities, payments in the region as a whole fell by 0.2%), in the Volgograd Region by 13.6% (minus 5.2% for the region), and in the Nizhny Novgorod Region by 33.1% (plus 24.9%).

Adherence to sustainable banking model enables us to build long-term, trusting relationships with clients and guarantee planned profit growth through timely and full loan and interest repayment. It is a win-win strategy: both the customer and the bank win.