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Russia’s largest savings bank Sberbank will encourage small businesses engaged in informal economy to start operating officially, vice president of the bank Andrey Sharov said in an interview with TASS.

According to him, about 80% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now have management reporting, not official one, which makes it difficult to issue bank loans.

“The share of transparent small business is 20%, while about 80% of small businesses use “management” reporting. That is why it is easier to issue a 1 bln rubles loan to a big business at comparable cost than to give 1 million rubles to a small business,” Sharov said.

“Management” reporting reflects the real situation in small and medium-sized businesses, which often hide the real incomes in the official reporting that they give to the tax and other authorities.

“One of our goals with the Central Bank is to change the lending technology, encouraging our clients to make their businesses transparent. In this case the client will see that going official is really advantageous,” Sharov said.

Sharov suggested that the government, the Central Bank and commercial banks should develop a joint action plan how to make the activities of small and medium-sized businesses transparent.

“Banks should ensure a lower rate, give a loan in one day not in five days. The government should provide a reasonable social tax, to assure entrepreneurs that tax service won’t bother them for no reason,” vice-president of Sberbank said.