VTB revealed the volume of guarantees issued to entrepreneurs in 2023 – Kommersant

In 2023, clients of medium and small businesses registered with VTB (MOEX: VTBR) 21.5 thousand guarantees and letters of credit. This is a quarter more than a year earlier. Ruslan Eremenko, head of the regional corporate business department and senior vice president of VTB Bank, spoke about this during the VTB strategic week. According to him, most of the guarantees were issued using express technology with accelerated decision-making.

At the end of last year, the volume of issuance of VTB documentary products increased by 30% in annual terms, to 672.3 billion rubles. The warranty portfolio of medium and small business clients grew by 28%, to RUB 641 billion. In 52% of cases, entrepreneurs issued guarantees for the execution of contracts, and more than a quarter were guarantees for the return of advance payments. Among the most popular were also guarantees of loan repayment, payment, tax and customs.

According to VTB, bank guarantees are more often chosen by enterprises in transport and infrastructure construction, trade, mechanical engineering and metalworking, as well as housing and commercial construction. Express guarantees within the framework of government procurement and commercial contracts, which can be issued remotely in the amount of up to 75 million rubles. and received within two hours, popular among small business clients. Last year, entrepreneurs issued over 14 thousand guarantees on express technology for 159 billion rubles, which is 87% more than a year earlier.

In 2023, the most dynamically growing segment of the Russian credit market became lending to small and medium-sized businesses. Entrepreneurs needed money to try to occupy market niches vacated by the departure of Western companies. According to the Central Bank, the total volume of loans from Russian banks to SMEs at the end of the first half of 2023 exceeded 11 trillion rubles, the annual growth rate was over 33%.

VTB plans to expand its client base of medium and small businesses by 1.5 times by the end of 2026. This week the bank presented a new development strategy, one of the points of which was the development of information technology.

Details are in the Kommersant FM publication. “AI is being built into services”.

Laura Keffer