OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2009. The Bank of Russia will provide support to banks which are going through reorganization and have received creditor demands for early debt repayment, after a decision was adopted on a temporary increase in credit risk limits for issuing collateral-free loans, the bank said on its corporate website www.cbr.ru. The relevant decision was taken by CBR’s Board of Directors on April 10, 2009. This measure will impact to the banks which:

- are classified as category 1-3 lending institutions according to the decision of CBR’s Board of Directors published in CBR’s press release on December 12, 2008 “On National Rating Agencies Whose Ratings the Bank of Russia Uses to Assess the Creditworthiness of Lending Institutions, Minimum Levels of Such Ratings, Balance between Ratings and Terms of Floating Loans”;

- adopted decisions to hold a general shareholder meeting with issues on the agenda including reorganization of a lending institution in the form of a merger or a takeover and submitted information about it to the Bank of Russia;
- have agreements as part of which creditors have claimed premature fulfillment of obligations due to the occurrence of events predetermined by reorganization and information about it submitted to the Bank of Russia;

CBR’s press release says that in order to increase a credit limit as part of the credit risk of a lending institution compliant with the abovementioned criteria, banks should contact the Financial Market Operations Department of the Bank of Russia.