OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2008. Loans issued by Promsvyazbank (PSB) within the framework of its new small and medium enterprise (SME) lending program exceeded RUB 1.5 billion. As a part of PSB’s strategy of developing financial services for SME, an SME Department was formed in April 2007 and a new SME lending program was launched in September 2007 in Moscow, the Moscow region and in 20 further PSB branches in other Russian regions. Simultaneously, eligibility criteria for recipients of SME loans were tightened; in accordance with the new criteria, on 1 January 2008, PSB’s overall SME loan book totaled more than RUB 9 billion.

PSB issued over 500 loans during the last three months of 2007. About 64 % of this number were issued by branches outside of Moscow and the Moscow region. “PSB Business” was the most demanded loan product, which accounted for 28% of the total.

In 2008, PSB is going to further expand its SME loan portfolio up to RUB28 billion.

PSB offers three main products aimed at three different groups of customers – “PSB First”, “PSB Business” and “PSB Invest”. Loans are issued in rubles, US dollars and euros. Product description can be found on the bank’s website or in PSB’s offices.

Fast and flexible decision-making as well as ability to provide clients with long-term (up to five years) money are the key competitive advantages of PSB’s SME lending products. Tailor-made repayment schedule and grace period of up to nine months for principal repayments are also feasible.

Today, SME loans are issued by PSB branches in Moscow, Abakan, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Ivanovo, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ryazan, Saint Petersburg, Tambov, Chita, Yaroslavl and also in 10 smaller towns of Moscow region. Beginning from February 2008, the SME lending program will be introduced in all PSB branches throughout Russia.