MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: International Finance Corporation (IFC) to Loan $10m to Metcombank of Russia for On-Lending to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, has agreed to loan RUB 300 million (USD 10.3 million) to Joint Stock Company Metallurgic Commercial Bank (Metcombank), a private Russian lender. Metcombank will use the funds to increase lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to Snezana Stoiljkovic, IFC director for Europe and Central Asia, SMEs “are key to diversifying and modernizing Russia's regional economies.” Metcombank will also join the IFC's Global Trade Finance Program, an initiative that supports 200 banks in approximately 80 countries by guaranteeing the foreign trade transactions of their... Continue reading here. Contact MicroCapital to receive a complete sample issue of the MicroCapital Monitor, the monthly microfinance newspaper.