OREANDA-NEWS. October 16, 2009. Uniastrum Bank opened its second Small Business Loans Center – this time at its satellite office on Azov Street, Moscow, whose doors are open to any and all SB entrepreneurs looking for cut-price loan products that fit their individual needs, reported the press-centre of Uniastrum Bank.

Uniastrum Bank is pressing ahead with plans to establish small business loan centers in all of Moscow’s administrative districts and is currently looking to open another 6 before year-end 2009. For the record, the Bank launched its first small loan center at 6, Leninsky Prospekt on September 21 this year.

The decision to open SB loan centers was prompted by a sizeable increase in applications from business owners. Such centers will enable a large number of potential clients to obtain advice and apply for credit at a convenient, nearby location, as well as access the loan funds more quickly.

Uniastrum’s second small business loan center is located at Bldg. 2, 24, Azov Street, Moscow, and is open Monday-Friday 10:00 am – 8:00 pm; Saturday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm; closed Sunday. Telephone: 795-32-33, 744-04-04 Special care has been taken to ensure that the satellite office’s design and equipment provide a friendly, customer-focused environment for servicing the banking needs of both business and retail clients alike. Customers are able to make use of a depositary with safety deposit boxes of 3 different sizes, a 24-hour ATM, an NGT terminal for topping up plastic cards and making payments and deposits, a B-Print system for reading barcodes on business client payment orders in hard copy, etc.

A notable feature of Uniastrum Bank’s Azov Street satellite office is its convenient location, which enjoys excellent public and private transport accessibility. Situated near to Sevastopol and Kakhovskaya subway stations and between two major road arteries in south Moscow (the Warsaw Highway and Sevastopol Prospekt) and Balaclava Prospekt, where they merge, the office can be easily reached by sales and service outlets and other small businesses servicing the local community.

Results for 9M09 show Uniastrum Bank’s small business lending portfolio tipping the scales at Rb 3.4 bn, with growth particularly conspicuous in the third quarter. Over September alone, some Rb 700 mn were given out in SB credits. Meantime, Uniastrum’s most popular SB lending scheme remains its U-Prime initiative, which enables borrowers to take out anywhere between Rb 5 mn and Rb 20 mn for up to 10 years at 17.7% interest on ruble-denominated loans or at 14% for those issued in dollars or euros– rates that, without doubt, make U-Prime one of the most competitive SME lending options available anywhere on the Russian market.

“Our priority task is providing practical solutions that further the growth of small businesses,” says Kirill Madyarov, member of Uniastrum’s management board and director of its Moscow and Moscow Region Branch Office Management Department. “The Moscow region is one of the country’s most dynamic areas for private enterprise and we have made it a matter of policy to provide small and midsized businesses with end-to-end, top-notch banking services.”