UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 11, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) issued nearly two times as many bank guarantees in accordance with the Federal Act 44 FZ in the third quarter of the year as in the previous quarter, the bank’s press service reports.

The bank also made getting these bank guarantees (44 FZ, 223 FZ, and 615 PP) easier, as applicants only need to subscribe to the bank’s Tender Express package once in order to be eligible to apply for guarantees within a set money limit as many times as they need to; the entire procedure only takes four hours.

According to UBRD Corporates Development Director Elena Sorvina, the service is quite popular with the bank’s larger corporate customers. Given the growing demand on the small and medium enterprises’ part, the bank is now offering appealing terms to this customer category as well.

‘At the moment, 94% of all the bank guarantees we issue to applicants are express ones. SMEs are now taking part in government purchase tenders as a matter of course, and this has grown to be their regular source of income. For one, over 75% of our customers apply to compete in government tenders on a regular basis, so for them, having this ‘wholesale’ and time-saving Tender Express package is a must. The new service means our customers can obtain any number of bank guarantees within a given money limit in a matter of hours,’ Sorvina says.