OREANDA-NEWS. July 4, 2011. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is investing in the equity of Russia’s Transcapitalbank and providing the bank with a loan to help it offer energy efficiency loans to small and medium companies in Russia’s remote regions.

IFC is becoming a 7.7 percent shareholder of Transcapitalbank and providing the bank with an USD 18.2 million loan. IFC will also provide advisory services to help Transcapitalbank develop and market the new energy efficiency-related financial products, and train its staff in assessing the energy efficiency potential of projects.

“Energy efficiency finance has proved to be a sustainable and profitable business and we are grateful to IFC for its support, which will help us offer our small and medium enterprise clients a new product,” said Chairperson of the Management Board of Transcapitalbank, Olga Gryadovaya. “Transcapitalbank and its clients are positioned for growth, and energy efficiency finance will help us grow in a more sustainable way.”

“Transcapitalbank is our long-term client, and with this investment we are deepening our cooperation and expanding it to a new area,” said Snezana Stoiljkovic, IFC Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “Transcapitalbank’s focus on smaller businesses in the regions will enable more companies to make energy efficiency improvements boosting their competitiveness by reducing energy use and helping tackle climate change.”

IFC launched the Russia Sustainable Energy Finance Program in 2005 to stimulate investment in energy efficiency projects. The program supports financial institutions in building energy efficiency finance products. Today the program works with 11 partner financial institutions and has enabled financing for about 200 energy efficiency projects throughout Russia, which will save Russian companies over USD 30 million per year on energy costs and contribute to CO2 emissions avoidance by over 435,000 tons per year.