OREANDA-NEWS. June 08, 2010. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is partnering with Russia’s Bank Saint Petersburg to expand access to trade finance for small and medium enterprises in the northwest region of Russia, reported the press-centre of Bank Saint Petersburg.

IFC is providing Bank Saint Petersburg with a USD40 million guarantee facility through its Global Trade Finance Program. This first investment by IFC in Bank Saint Petersburg will allow the bank to provide enhanced trade finance solutions for its import and export clients and contribute to foreign trade development in Russia.

Snezana Stoiljkovic, IFC Director for Central and Eastern Europe, said, “Trade finance helps restore and expand trade ties between companies and countries. We see significant potential for expansion of our Global Trade Finance Program in Russia in partnership with Bank Saint Petersburg, which will open new foreign trade opportunities for its clients.”

Alexander Savelyev, Chairman of the Management Board of Bank Saint Petersburg, said, ”The IFC Global Trade Finance Program will expand our capacity to finance our customers’ foreign trade transactions and connect us to IFC’s global network of participating partner banks.”

The IFC Global Trade Finance Program supports trade in emerging markets worldwide by providing trade risk mitigation and trade advisory services. The program extends and complements the capacity of banks to deliver trade finance services in challenging markets where interbank facilities may be limited.

Through the program, IFC helps developing countries increase their share of global trade flows and promotes the movement of goods and services between major emerging market economies such as Russia and its neighbors. Since the program was established in 2005, IFC has provided more than USD7.1 billion in guarantees, supporting over 5,500 trade transactions into and between emerging markets through a network of more than 360 participating partner banks.