Industry & Construction Bank

completed

The proposed investment is part of the Russian multi-bank credit line project to provide funding to several regional banks in Russia. Established in 1990, ICB is among the largest commercial banks in Russia. In 2001, ICB was named “bank of the year” for its dynamic development and it is among the strongest retail banks in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. As of December 31, 2001, the bank’s preliminary unaudited total assets amounted to US$1.0 billion and capital to US$116.9 million equivalent calculated according to IAS (except for IAS 39). Currently, there are virtually no commercial sources of long-term funding for Russian banks, unless they belong to one of the large financial industrial groups. IFC''s financing will enable ICB to expand its lending activities to the mid-sized enterprises in the region. The Russian financial sector is underdeveloped and does not function efficiently in either mobilizing or allocating resources. The resulting shortage of financing is a major constraint to the development of a productive sector of the economy. This project will contribute to rehabilitating and restoring confidence in the sector by helping a regional viable bank and will provide credit to help the development of regional productive enterprises. The investment will also allow the bank to increase its lending, with longer maturities, to mid-sized Russian corporates, thus supporting a sector of the economy which will be a key to achieving sustained economic growth and generating employment in the next few years.