OREANDA-NEWS. On April 16, 2007 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to acquire a 28,25 percent stake in Tatarstan’s Spurt Bank from existing shareholders as part of its long-term strategy to support the development of regional banks and encourage lending to the small and medium-sized businesses holding the key to Russia’s economic diversification, reported the press-centre of  EBRD. This investment will make the EBRD Spurt bank’s largest single shareholder, said the EBRD’s Kurt Geiger, Business Group Director, Financial Institutions.


It will help strengthen Spurt Bank’s capital, bolster its position in its home market as well as finance this innovative and customer-oriented bank’s strategy of regional expansion and the EBRD particularly welcomes Spurt Bank’s commitment to continue its drive to improve corporate governance, Mr. Geiger added. Spurt Bank, established in 1992 with headquarters in Kazan, is the fifth-largest bank in terms of total assets in the Russian republic of Tatarstan. Traditionally a corporate bank, it recently switched to a strategy of developing into a universal bank, expanding into retail and targeting small businesses, including with the help of a 280 million rouble credit line from the EBRD in 2005. Other financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.