“It is proposed to provide a subordinated loan to Gazprombank worth 75 billion rubles,” Putin said, adding that Gazprombank in return will have to lend the real economy the same money it is going to receive from the state.
The government is looking to banks to help pull Russia out of its first recession in a decade with affordable loans. Putin, who is chairman of VEB’s supervisory board, has repeatedly ordered banks to dole out more loans at lower rates.
“Gazprombank and the other banks, which have received subordinated loans, must stick to previous agreements about the volume of lending,” Putin said.
VEB has already given 276.3 billion rubles via subordinated loans, with the biggest, in the amount of 200 billion rubles, received by state-controlled VTB.
VEB’s chief executive Vladimir Dmitriyev said its current funds will not be enough to satisfy the demand for financing from the country’s banks.
“The total amount of loan applications may bring us to a total deficit of funds of 80 billion rubles,” Dmitriyev said.
VEB said in June that it may issue the next tranche of its foreign currency bonds in July for a total of more than $2 billion, but Dmitriyev said Monday that the bank has no plans so far to come back to the local bond market.
The bank is considering a syndicated loan but has not determined its size yet, the banker said.
Putin also proposed increasing the capital of VEB’s subsidiary Russian Development Bank, which focuses on lending to small and medium enterprises, by 10 billion rubles ($321.2 million).
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