UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 30, 2019. Small and medium enterprises deposit increasingly more money with banks, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s website states. According to the Deposit Insurance Agency, the overall amount of state-insured bank deposits opened by small businesses and sole traders increased by 0.3% in the first half of 2019.

The UBRD Corporates Development Director Elena Sorvina says the upward trend took off after the new law on the state insurance of bank deposits opened by SMEs (up to RUB 1.4m per deposit holder) came into effect on January 1, 2019. The same insurance regulations also apply to sole traders since early 2014.

‘It is clear after the first six months that managers and business owners now see state-run and privately owned banks as equally reliable. So the banking market players are now competing by offering better services and better terms,’ Sorvina says.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development is no exception to the general trend: the bank’s monthly average corporate deposit book (the part of it concerning the SMEs) increased by 18% in the course of one year. Small businesses also tend to keep the money in the bank longer than before, and to place more funds with the banks than earlier.