Sberbank Rossii : and Ministry of Agriculture sign agreement on reduced-rate loans for the agricultural industry with interest rates of no more than 5%

January 24, 2017, Moscow - Sberbank and the Russian Ministry of Agriculture have signed a Cooperation Agreement under the Programme for Reduced Rate Lending to Agricultural Companies (link to the text of the Russian Government Directive).

The new procedure for subsidising allows agricultural producers to receive short-term (up to one year and one billion roubles) and investment loans (up to eight billion roubles for two to 15 years) at an interest rate of no more than 5% per annum. At least 20% of the total volume of loans must go to small-scale enterprises.

The new procedure will considerably simplify the procedure according to which borrowers receive subsidised funds.

Previously, borrowers received loans from the bank at the market rate and had to contact the relevant government agency to receive compensation. After the introduction of the new procedure, businesspeople can immediately receive loans at discounted rates, and all communication with the Russian Ministry of Agriculture is now performed by the bank (sending the documents needed to receive subsidised lending, etc.).

'Our aim is for the client to receive all the services he or she needs as quickly as possible and as conveniently as possible. Sberbank played an active role in creating a new method for providing subsidised loans to agricultural producers via banks in order to offer our clients an appealing service and simplify the procedure for receiving state support to the fullest possible extent. Currently the bank is currently putting together lists of borrowers who are entitled to discount-rate loans,' commented Anatoly Popov, Senior Vice President of Sberbank.

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Sberbank is Russia's largest bank and a leading global financial institution. Sberbank holds almost one third of aggregate Russian banking sector assets, it is the key lender to the national economy and the biggest deposit taker in Russia. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is the founder and principal shareholder of Sberbank owning 50% of the Bank's authorized capital plus one voting share, with the remaining 50% held by domestic and international investors. Sberbank has more than 135 million individual customers and more than 4 million corporate clients in 20 countries. Sberbank has the largest distribution network in Russia with almost 17,000 branches, and its international operations include UK, US, CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, India, China, Turkey and other countries.

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