On the Russian Development Bank’s Rebranding
The Russian Development Bank (OJSC the Russian Development Bank) has changed its name to SME Bank (the Bank’s full name is OJSC Russian Bank for Small and Medium Enterprises Support). The confirmation of the name change has been received from the Russian Central Bank. The records were entered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of the Russian Federation. A transitional period for introducing the new name and notifying counter parties is to be valid until August 1, 2011. From this date the new brand, that is, SME Bank will be fully used. Together with the name change, SME Bank will introduce a new company style. The Bank’s logo is a stylized representation of a cone, which besides its originality and recognizability, has a varied positive meaning. The company’s main color is orange.
An initiative to rebrand and change the name of the Russian Development Bank (OJSC) was launched by State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)’. The need for rebranding was caused by the Bank’s specialization within Vnesheconombank’s Group which is to provide support for small and medium enterprises. The Russian Development Bank (OJSC) has been implementing the state program of providing financial support for SMEs since 2004. Under the program the Bank is lending to small and medium enterprises through a network of partner banks which receive funding on preferential terms to provide target lending to SMEs. Later on, the program was joined by the so called SME infrastructure support entities: leasing companies, factoring companies, micro financial institutions, SME support regional funds.
Nowadays the Bank’s partners are 193 regional banks and 118 infrastructure entities. The Bank entered into more than 32 thousand agreements with small and medium enterprises. The program is being implemented in 81 regions.
In 2009, Vnesheconombank handed over programs of supporting SMEs worth 49 billion rubles to the Russian Development Bank for it to implement them.
Taking into account a multiplier effect, the amount of funds to support small and medium enterprises with the use of the Russian Development Bank’s resources exceeded 140 billion rubles.
The name change won’t have any influence on SME Bank’s customers because the name change does not entail a change in the Bank’s organizational and legal framework, PSRN, TIN and its other details. The Bank’s rights and responsibilities remain unchanged. Agreements are not required to be redrawn with the use of the new name.
