OREANDA-NEWS. May 10, 2013. SME Bank (Vnesheconombank Group) took part in the XXIV Congress of the Association of Russian Banks (ARB), held in Moscow. The Congress was opened by Garegin Tosunyan, President of ARB, who emphasized the topicality of the event.

The Congress was addressed by Sergey Ignatiev, Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance, Alexander Torshin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council and by CEOs of major banks.

Interalia the participants discussed new opportunities for SME lending. Thus, Elvira Nabiullina, Assistant to the RF President said that SME lending could become one of the niches in the bank lending market.

“Currently the Central Bank is dampening consumer lending and freed liquidity could be used for SME lending”, said Olesia Teploukhova, Deputy Chairman of the Board of SME Bank.