OREANDA-NEWS. Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) signed a loan agreement with NBD Bank today. Under the agreement EDB will provide a third loan to NBD Bank to finance small and medium-sized businesses, to the tune of RUB 175 million. The agreement was signed by Dmitry Krasilnikov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at EDB, and Alexender Sharonov, Chairman of the Management Board at NBD Bank.

The project will make it possible for regional SMEs to get loans from NBD Bank in the roubles for up to three years. NBD Bank will select sub-borrowers on its own, in accordance with the criteria approved by EDB, and provide them sub-loans for business development. The funds will be used to provide loans to companies in Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Ivanovo and Penza Regions, the Chuvash Republic, and the Mari El Republic.

The loan is provided in the framework of the EDB Programme for the Support and Development of SMEs through the Provision of Targeted Loan Facilities to Financial Institutions. The previous two agreements with NBD Bank under the SMEs finance programme were signed in June 2012 and September 2013, for a total of RUB 160 million and 96 million respectively.

"We continue to develop cooperation with EDB. This is an important area of work to us and we appreciate that it will result in additional finance for the advancement of regional SMEs. This is of particular importance today," says Yevgeny Maksakov, Head of Corporate Finance and Clients at NBD Bank.

"We are happy to continue cooperation with NBD Bank. It confirms that our projects help to create favourable conditions for the sustainable development of SMEs in Russia, enhance the competitive environment, improve the competitiveness of SMEs in domestic and external markets, and advance the infrastructure and institutional basis for the market economy in Russia," emphasises Dmitry Krasilnikov.