OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2009. Vnesheconombank’s Supervisory Board approved the introduction of changes to the Procedure for Implementing Measures by Vnesheconombank provided for by articles 1 and 2 of Federal Law N 173-FZ “On Additional Measures for Supporting the Financial System of the Russian Federation”.

The new revision of the Procedure has a number of changes concerning mandatory and additional requirements to the borrower (credit institution). In particular, obligations of only those Russian credit institutions are to be refinanced whose own funds amount to no less than 15 billion rubles and whose credit rating is not lower than the established level (B- under S&P rating scale) and against which the Bank of Russia imposed no sanctions as of the date of submitting an application for refinancing. Additional requirements to borrowers from among credit institutions are to submit aggregate data on their loan and guarantee portfolio for the year 2008 with regard to credits and guarantees extended to industries of the real sector of the Russian economy as well as Strategies for Lending the real Sector of the Economy and Population of the Russian Federation for a Period of 2009-2011.

Moreover, the Procedure now includes requirements to the terms of credit transactions provided that the borrower is a credit institution. They stipulate that the Bank shall receive a letter of recommendation from the Central Bank with a positive conclusion that the Bank can conduct a Credit Transaction and that the borrower shall guarantee that representatives of the Central Bank and/or authorized government bodies are incorporated into the borrower’s management bodies and that Russian owners’ share in the borrower’s capital is not lower than 50%+1 share during a credit transaction period and that the borrower shall provide acceptable security.

The Supervisory Board also approved Vnesheconombank’s participation in refinancing foreign debt obligations worth 1.5 billion US dollars of a company in the mining and smelting complex whose operation is of great socio-economic importance for the Russian Federation.