On August 30, 2002 an agreement was signed between Bank Center-invest and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on expansion of USAID guarantee line for loans given by the Bank to small and micro enterprises up to USD 6 million.

It should be recalled that according to the terms of the agreement USAID undertakes 50% risk discharge on loans given by the Bank to small enterprises which meet certain qualification requirements. It means that USAID guarantees allow a small enterprise to provide the security equal to the received loan.

The agreement concluded in the beginning of year provided guarantees for the sum USD 2 million. But successful realization of the joint program has allowed the American party to propose increase of the sum of the guarantees. Today there are RUR 250 million in the loan portfolio of Bank Center-invest for small enterprises, more than RUR 30 million being given within the USAID guarantee line.