On the basis of four regional leasing companies created with the participation of the SME Corporation, a united SME Leasing JSC will be formed, Alexander Isaevich, General Director of the SME Corporation, said during a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. According to him, the emergence of a single leasing company within the structure of the Corporation will help to increase the volume of preferential leasing support for businesses by more than five times by 2025.
“The united leasing company will start its operations in September 2022. Its appearance in the structure of the Corporation will help make leasing a more widespread and affordable product for small and medium-sized businesses. As a result, by 2025 we expect an increase in the volume of preferential leasing support by more than five times. Its total volume should be at least 50 billion rubles,” Alexander Isaevich noted. According to him, equipment remains the priority of the preferential leasing program.
According to Isaevich, the reorganization of the leasing activities of the SME Corporation will help improve the quality of customer service. “We plan to automate the consideration of applications. Digitization of this process alone will save up to 14 working days on the transfer of papers. After the completion of the reorganization, four regional leasing companies will continue their work on the ground, they will be provided with the necessary support,” he said.
In parallel, the work of the subsidiary SME Bank will be restarted, a new strategy for its development is already ready. “The bank will become the back office of the Government of the Russian Federation and will take part in the implementation of priority initiatives of the Cabinet of Ministers. Taking into account the huge demand of entrepreneurs for quick unsecured loans for small amounts – up to 10 million rubles – express lending is scaling up. In addition, SME Bank will continue to launch joint preferential programs with the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and will transfer its “loan conveyor” system to regional banks to increase the coverage of lending,” Alexander Isaevich explained.
Providing support to small and medium-sized businesses in the form of “umbrella” guarantees will remain among the priority areas of work of the SME Corporation. “In 2021, by changing the guarantee support and launching the umbrella guarantee mechanism in September, we supported more than 8,000 entrepreneurs. This is 3.5 times more than in 2020. At the same time, for the five months of this year, the record figures of 2021 have already been exceeded, support has been provided to 11 thousand entrepreneurs,” said Alexander Isaevich.