OREANDA-NEWS. September 07, 2009. Applications for participation in the state SME lending support program were submitted by 88 banks for an amount over RUR 25 bln., reported the press-centre of RBD.

The Russian Bank for Development has completed the first stage of selection of applications and has allocated regional quotas to the counter-party banks in the regions with lower demand for financial resources that is to say where amounts of applications are less than the fixed regional limit. After the selection of applications from the banks RBD has determined the counter-party banks which are actually proceeding to fund small and mid-sized businesses in the regions with a lower demand. Resulting the first stage, the program will involve 38 banks to which regional quotas for lending were fixed in 56 regions with the total size of lending over RUR 6.5 bln.

Information about the results of allocation of regional quotas to the counter-party banks in the regions with a lower demand is published on the official RBD’s web-site (www.rosbr.ru).

At the next stage of selection being currently in progress, out of 50 banks which have applied for the program the Bank will determine counter-party banks in the regions with a higher demand and allocate regional quotas to them. In the nearest future the results of allocation regional quotas to the counter-party banks in the regions with a higher demand will be published on the Bank’s s web-site as well. The amount of funding in for these regions will reach approximately RUR 7 bln.

At that as early as now RBD is declaring its preparedness to receive applications from the banks which meet the requirements of the state SME lending support program with the view to fill available limits set for the regions.