Small businesses from 28 affected industries can receive preferential financing under the program of the Bank of Russia and the SME Corporation

A list of 28 affected industries has been identified that will be able to receive a preferential loan or restructure the existing one at a reduced rate. The loan rate is set at no higher than 8.5 percent per annum. To obtain a preferential loan by December 30, you need to contact one of the authorized banks under the SME Lending Incentive Program.

Enterprises operating under the main or additional OKVED in one of the industries included in the list can apply for preferential loans (there are 28 OKVED in the list). These are hotels, catering, hairdressers and beauty salons, dry cleaners, dentists, cinemas, spa organizations, museums, zoos. The support also extends to companies in the field of tourism, arts and entertainment, sports and fitness, additional education, child care, conferences and exhibitions, small household repairs. In addition, the list includes several types of retail trade in non-food products, bus stations and bus terminals, passenger and cargo transportation enterprises.

Lending is carried out for various purposes, including refinancing at a lower rate of existing loans. At the same time, the presence of loan debt in the business under other concessional lending programs will not be an obstacle to obtaining financing within the limit.

"Entrepreneurs will be able not only to get new borrowed funds at a low rate, but also to restructure existing loans at a rate below 8.5%. This is possible due to the fact that the Corporation assumes part of the risks for entrepreneurs. We have provided special limits for micro and small businesses so that they can be guaranteed to receive the necessary financing," said Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation.

Earlier, the Bank of Russia decided to allocate a special limit to support preferential lending by banks to SMEs from the list of industries most affected by temporary anti-epidemic measures, allocating 60 billion rubles for these purposes.  Credit organizations will be able to attract these funds under the guarantees of the SME Corporation at a rate of 4% per annum for up to 1.5 years and bring them in the form of concessional loans to businesses.

Let us recall that on November 1, SME Bank, a subsidiary of SME Corporation, began accepting applications for concessional lending under the extended anti-crisis program of the Government FOT 3.0. Its prolongation in October was announced by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. The program provides support to industries that have been most affected by the pandemic. It provides for the issuance of loans to businesses for any purpose at 3% per annum with a maturity of 18 months, subject to the preservation of at least 90% of jobs. At the same time, the borrower is granted a deferred payment for six months.

In addition, SMEs can apply for a one-time payment in the form of a grant. It will partially cover the affected enterprises with the loss of revenue and support about 3 million people. The amount of the grant, the Ministry of Economic Development explained, is calculated based on 1 minimum wage for each employee and will allow, among other things, to ensure the payment of salaries to employees. The total amount of such support will be about 38.5 billion rubles. Business can apply for grants remotely for 1.5 months, starting from November 1 of this year, payments will begin on November 15.