Central Bank extends loan restructuring to businesses affected by pandemic

According to their programs, financial institutions are restructuring, providing deferred payments or extending the loan term, the National Bank of the Bashkortostan recalled. In addition, it is not recommended to apply penalties to this category of borrowers and consider restructuring to be a factor worsening the credit history.

For the first time, "credit holidays" in connection with the pandemic were introduced in the spring of 2020 and turned out to be an effective anti-crisis tool. Over a year and a half, more than 62 thousand individual loans restructuring in the amount of 22.5 billion rubles were carried out in the republic, of which more than 56.5 thousand loans were restructured on banks' programs for almost 19.5 billion rubles.

Small and medium-sized businesses have undergone more than 2,000 restructuring procedures for more than 8.5 billion.

As additional support for small and medium-sized businesses, the regulator allocated 60 billion rubles for concessional lending to companies from the list of industries affected by the restrictions.

By the end of 2021, banks participating in the entrepreneurship lending incentive program will be able to attract loans from the Bank of Russia guaranteed by the SME Corporation at a rate of 4% per annum for a period of up to one and a half years.

Such loans can be obtained on the condition of lending to entrepreneurs at a rate not higher than 8.5% or reducing the rate on previously issued loans to a level not higher than 8.5%, the National Bank RB informed.