Bank of Russia holds working group meeting on financing small and medium-sized businesses
The meeting participants discussed the results of measures to support lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), further steps to develop SME financing tools, issues of reducing transaction costs for business, the operation of the Know Your Customer platform, and others.
The regulator will consider expanded participation of regional banks and banks with a basic license, actively working with SMEs in the lending incentive programme, noted Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia.
In 2022, it is also planned to increase from 10 to 50 million rubles the maximum amount of loans to SMEs, the risk assessment of which is based on banks’ internal approaches. At the same time, the regulator considers the calibration of the scale for making provisions for such loans. This will reduce transaction costs for borrowers and banks, and allow banks to issue loans faster and to a larger number of borrowers.
Additionally, the regulator starts to collect business proposals in the roadmap for SME financing for