Banks switch IT companies from preferential lending rates to market ones

Banks began to notify IT companies that received preferential financing under the Ministry of Digital Development’s program about an increase in rates from 3–5% to 18.5%, citing the fact that they did not receive funds for compensation. In total, the program issued loans worth more than 80 billion rubles. Electronics manufacturers are faced with a similar problem – banks are raising preferential rates to market rates due to the lack of government funding. The Ministry of Digital Development, however, assures that all the necessary funds have been provided to banks, and next year the limits on preferential loans will increase by 50%.

According to two Kommersant sources in the market, a number of Russian IT companies that received preferential loans under Resolution No. 1598 faced an increase in rates from banks.

The founder of the CRM integrator Pinol, Alexey Okara, confirmed this information to Kommersant. According to him, a number of enterprises received similar notifications, in particular from Sberbank. The bank reported in letters that it had increased the lending rate from preferential (3–5%) to market rate (18–18.5%), explaining that the Ministry of Digital Development refused to subsidize shortfalls in income back in October. According to Mr. Okara, VTB also sent similar notifications to borrowers, and in total about 150 IT companies faced the problem.

President of the Union for the Support and Development of Technology Companies (STC, which includes more than 100 small and medium-sized IT companies) Evgenia Dmitrieva also confirms that a number of companies included in the association have received notifications from banks: “It is necessary to conduct additional negotiations between the Ministry of Digital Development and the management of participating banks in the implementation of a program of preferential lending to accredited IT companies to resolve the situation.”

Sberbank and VTB did not respond to Kommersant’s requests.

Resolution No. 1598 was adopted in December 2019; it regulates the provision of preferential loans to IT companies for the implementation of “end-to-end digital technologies” – we are talking about the development, modification or implementation of software.

It follows from the document that the Ministry of Digital Development undertakes to provide banks participating in the program with subsidies that will be used to compensate for the shortfall in rates for preferential lending to IT companies. The minimum loan amount is 5 million rubles, the maximum is 5 billion rubles. According to the ministry, in total, 164 projects received support, the total loan portfolio for them amounted to 82.3 billion rubles.

In October, Vedomosti reported that due to the Central Bank’s increase in the key rate to 13% (today the figure has already been raised to 15%), the Ministry of Digital Development required a “revaluation of resources” to provide banks with a sufficient amount of budgetary allocations to compensate for the falling rates on preferential loans for IT -companies. In November, it became known that due to similar problems, the mechanism for preferential lending to electronics manufacturers stopped working: due to the exhaustion of funds allocated to subsidize interest, banks canceled preferential rates for such large borrowers as Yadro and Aquarius (see Kommersant ” dated November 11).

According to a Kommersant source, on December 4, the problem was planned to be discussed at a meeting of representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development and Sberbank: “As far as I understand, the bankers had to agree with the officials on the timing of receiving additional allocations to continue the preferential lending program.”

The Ministry of Digital Development, however, insists that the preferential lending program within the framework of Resolution No. 1598 continues to operate, adding that after the key rate was raised, the department assessed the necessary additional financing for the program and found additional funds: “The first part of the funds has already been delivered to the banks. We expect that the second one will arrive at credit institutions by the end of the year.” The representative of the ministry added that for 2024, 4.1 billion rubles were included in the budget for subsidizing interest rates on preferential loans, which is 49% more than in 2023.

Vice-President of the Association of Banks of Russia Alexey Voylukov notes that the increase in the key rate of the Central Bank led to the problem of early spending of limits on a number of preferential lending programs: “The amounts pledged at the beginning of the year to compensate for shortfalls in interest on loans have most likely ended. If we assume that next year’s budget includes expenses for benefits for IT companies, taking into account the increased key rate, then banks will most likely return preferential interest on such loans in January.”

Nikita Korolev