The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development started giving considerably more loans to small and medium-scale businesses last year, so the bank’s loan portfolio grew by 75% compared to the year 2006, the bank’s press officer reports.

There were several reasons for the bank to do so well in terms of business loans. Firstly, analysts claim the local small and medium-scale companies’ credit needs are only satisfied by 60% to 70%.

'Small businesses are starting to use banking services more and more often, be it leasing, factoring, Client-Bank or Internet-Bank schemes, but loans are by far the most popular service,’ says the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Moneylending Development Director Elena Sorvina.

Secondly, the bank came up with a special program for small and medium-scale businesses who need a loan. This program consists of eight kinds of credit schemes and various ways of borrowing, for instance, term loans, credit lines, and overdrafts. The program is very flexible and can be customized to meet each company’s individual needs. Finally, a company only needs very few papers to apply, which makes the whole process quite painless.

‘As the demand for bank loans keeps growing, this banking service is bound to improve in terms of both quality and quantity and borrowing terms are to grow more liberal,’ Ms Sorvina notes.