Published: February 19, 2013
Center-Invest Bank receives RUB900mn loan to pass on to client companies.
The World Bank’s IFC division is lending RUB900mn (US$29mn) to Center-Invest Bank, a private bank in southern Russia, to help it provide new funding to small businesses.
Center-Invest Bank will lend the money to small businesses in frontier regions of southern Russia, which the IFC claims will help to create jobs and diversify the local economy.
The IFC has worked with Center-Invest Bank since 2002, lending the bank more than US$40mn. This deal brings the IFC’s investment portfolio in Russia to some US$2.3bn, its fourth-largest country exposure globally.