OREANDA-NEWS. On October 20, 2008 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to extend a loan of 234 million roubles (equivalent to EUR6.3 million) to the privately-owned Master Bank, one of Russia’s most innovative and technologically advanced banks, to support its drive to promote grass-roots economic growth by funding micro and small businesses, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

This four-year loan is being extended under the EBRD’s Russia Small Business Fund (RSBF), which has advanced over 440,000 loans worth a cumulative US6 billion to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in Russia since it was launched with funding support from the G-7 and Switzerland in 1993. Master Bank is the 17th Russian bank to have joined the RSBF programme. The RSBF is active in some 200 Russian cities.

Master Bank, a mid-sized, privately-owned bank, operates the second largest payment network in Moscow after the state savings bank Sberbank and it currently expanding its successful model to other Russian regions. The bank boasts over 1100 ATM terminals both in Moscow and in the regions. A universal bank with a robust market niche in the Russian capital, it has seven regional offices outside the capital and has plans to inaugurate more in 2008-9. Master Bank employs around 1,100 staff.

This local currency loan will fulfil a crucial goal in the current troubled financial environment by helping Master Bank both to diversify its funding base and extend its maturity, said Chikako Kuno, Director of the EBRD’s Group for Small Business . The EBRD also welcomes Master Bank’s commitment to adopt an action plan aimed at simplifying its ownership structure, improving corporate governance and fine-tuning its financial management, Ms. Kuno added.

In addition to the loan, Master Bank is joining the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) under which the Bank offers revolving guarantees underpinning import and export transactions between its 29 countries of operation and the rest of the world so as to speed up trade flows.