Bank Zenit's portfolio of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises exceeded $270 million year-on-year in 2013.

The bank grew its overall number of agreements with regional funds of credit assistance to small and medium enterprises in 2013 in order to improve its services offered to such companies. This included funds in such cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg, in the Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Rostov, Samara, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions, and in the Republics of Tatarstan, Altay and Udmurtiya, and the Khanty-Mansy Autonomous Region Area.

In total, $8.8 billion was guaranteed by the funds at the end of the year.

"In the past year, financing of working capital was one of the most demanded services among the SME clients which was mainly used by trade sector companies. Investment credit - above all, financing of office property - was also among the most demanded services," Alexey Rozoryonov, the deputy chairman of the management board of Bank Zenit, said.