LOCKO-Bank and BSTDB expands support for SMEs amid pandemic

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is providing a RUR 2 billion loan facility to LOCKO-Bank for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Russia. The facility will support Russian SMEs which are mostly affected by the current COVID-19 crisis and will help them maintain jobs and income generation thus sustaining the resilience of the SME sector. The Ruble-denominated facility responds to the increasing market demand for local currency financing free of exchange rate fluctuations.

“Access to lower risk local currency funding is crucial for the SME sector in Russia and in many other countries of our region, especially under the current challenging circumstances. We are happy to develop further our established cooperation with LOCKO-Bank having a good track record in supporting Russian SMEs”, said Dmitry Pankin, BSTDB President.

“For many years we have been successfully working with the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, which is one of the key international partners of our bank. We look forward to further fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation with the BSTDB, – noted Viktor Davydik, Chairman of the Board of LOCKO-Bank. -We are planning to use the raised funds to support small and medium-sized enterprises in this difficult time”.

BSTDB and LOCKO-Bank started their cooperation in 2012, jointly supporting the SME sector development in Russia. In 2012-2014 BSTDB provided USD 25 million, which benefitted 35 SMEs through LOCKO-Bank’s sub-loans.

With the new loan to LOCKO-Bank, BSTDB further expands its local currency funding to partner financial institutions in Russia. In the past four years BSTDB provided Ruble-denominated loans to the Russian financial sector for the total amount of about RUR 13 billion in support of the SME sector and trade transactions.