PRIME-TASS. International Finance Corporation (IFC), an investment arm of the World Bank, plans to purchase up to 20% of the voting stocks in Bank South Region (Rostov-on-Don) for $1.5 mln. As the corporation said in a press release, this issue will be discussed on April 3, 2009.
“The priority strategy pursued by IFC on financial markets is to ensure that rural banks have access to funding, and also efforts to strengthen the stability of the banking system by consolidating the substantially fractured sector and reducing the concentration of state-run banks. Thus, IFC plans to support second- and third-tier banks in the regions that lack support from the banking system," IFC noted in the press release.
Bank South Region was registered in 1993 by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The bank is part of strategic banking alliance led by Ursa Bank (Novosibirsk). Other alliance members are also Orient Express Bank (Blagoveshchensk), Etalonbank (Moscow) and Rostpromstroybank (Rostov-on-Don). The bank is a member of the national deposit insurance system.
