OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2013. Sberbank of Russia and the International Finance Corporation (‘IFC’), a member of the World Bank Group, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The document reflects the intention of the parties to deepen and to develop the existing cooperation between the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Sberbank Group.

Sergey Gorkov, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank of Russia, signed the Memorandum on behalf of Sberbank and Dimitris Tsitsiragos, Vice President, Eastern and Southern Europe, Middle East and North Africa signed the memorandum on behalf of the International Finance Corporation.

Following the signing Sergey Gorkov said: "Sberbank Group has already had a positive experience working with the International Finance Corporation. IFC is actively cooperating with DenizBank, the subsidiary bank of Sberbank in Turkey, by taking part in the production of various securitization programs with 50 million Euros and 125 million Turkish liras.

In May 2013 IFC signed a loan agreement with a subsidiary bank of Sberbank in Kazakhstan for 10.5 billion tenge for a period of 5 years to support small and medium-sized businesses, and in June 2013 it increased the credit line for  BPS-Sberbank, the subsidiary bank of Sberbank in Belarus to USD50 million. We believe that the signing of the Memorandum will give impetus for the further development of this mutually beneficial relationship”.

Dimitris Tsitsiragos commented: “IFC as a development institution aims to develop small and medium-sized businesses through the expansion of access to finance for non-financial sector. Strengthening our cooperation with Sberbank will give further impetus to the implementation of this strategy”.