OREANDA-NEWS. On 04 August 2009 was announced, that the Rosbank’s northwest branch and Saint-Petersburg lending assistance to SMEs Fund signed a co-operation agreement. As part of the agreement Fund will act as a guarantor of SMEs with insufficient bid coverage.

Rosbank is the largest privately owned bank in Russia (it operates about 700 outlets, covering over 70 Russia’s regions). The bank operates in Belorussia and Switzerland through Belrosbank (Minsk) and Rosbank SA (Geneva).

Societe Generale is the principal shareholder of Rosbank, in February 2008 the Group exercised the option to increase its stake to 50 % plus 1 share hence taking control of Rosbank. In May 2008 SG increased its stake to 57.6%. In May 2009 Societe Generale Group acquired an additional stake of 7% in Rosbank shares from its Russian partner Interros. Further to this acquisition, Societe Generale owns 64,7% of the shares of Rosbank.

Rosbank is one of the leading players in Russian banking market. The Banker magazine (2008, July) ranked Rosbank 347th among banks globally in terms of shareholders’ equity. Since its inception the Bank's financial indices had a positive record. Rosbank is rated by Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.