The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral institution, recently disbursed three-year loans totaling USD 45 million to Bank CenterCredit, a commercial bank in Kazakhstan. The funding package has two components: (1) a loan in the amount of USD 40 million for onlending to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), with a focus on those operated by women outside of the cities of Astana and Almaty; and (2) a loan in the amount of USD 5 million for Bank CenterCredit to supplement the Women in Business Programme with an initiative to “develop, test, and roll out tailored sustainable credit mechanisms targeted at women-led MSMEs.” EBRD’s Women in Business Programme provides women in 19 countries with financing and advisory services including internet-based mentoring and training on subjects such as financial literacy, marketing, leadership skills, risk mitigation and e-commerce.
The Women in Business Programme has received approximately EUR 70 million (USD 82 million) in funding from the EU and the governments of Italy, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey as well as several EBRD accounts, including the Taiwan Business-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. Bank CenterCredit has been a participant in the Women in Business Programme since 2015. Under this initiative, it has disbursed KZT 7 billion (USD 20 million) as of 2018 to 230 small and medium-sized enterprises run by women.
Established in 1988, Bank CenterCredit offers corporate banking services, including brokerage and trade financing, as well as retail banking products, including deposit and lending services. As of March 2018, the bank reported total assets of KZT 1.4 trillion (USD 4.3 billion), outstanding loans of KZT 869 billion (USD 2.7 billion) and customer deposits of KZT 1 trillion (USD 3.2 billion). For 2017, it reported return on assets of 2.2 percent and return on equity of 22 percent. As of 2018, Bank CenterCredit has 119 service locations in Kazakhstan.
EBRD was founded in 1991 and has 66 shareholding countries – plus the EU and the European Investment Bank – as of 2018. With a focus on “the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative,” it invested EUR 9.7 billion (USD 11.2 billion) during 2017 in companies in 36 countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
By Nicholas Galimberti, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
EBRD press release
https://www.ebrd.com/news/2018/ebrd-provides-us-45-million-to-kazakhstans-bank-centercredit-.html
Bank CenterCredit background
https://www.bcc.kz/en/about-us/strategy/
Bank CenterCredit financials
http://old.kase.kz/files/emitters/CCBN/ccbnfm1_2018_cons_eng.pdf
Women in Business Programme background
http://www.ebrdwomeninbusiness.com/?s=about
EBRD activity in Kazakhstan
https://www.ebrd.com/kazakhstan-data.html
MicroCapital Brief; July 30, 2018; EU Funding Expansion of EBRD Women in Business Programme to Morocco
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-eu-funding-expansion-of-ebrd-women-in-business-programme-to-morocco/
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