The credit rating of JSC “RSMB Corporation” (hereinafter, the Corporation) has been affirmed on par with the financial obligations of the Government of the Russian Federation, which reflects the very high degree of state support to the Corporation.
ACRA has assigned the Corporation an ‘a-’ standalone creditworthiness assessment (SCA), which reflects comfortable capital and liquidity levels, as well as the advantages of a relatively stable and secure competitive position based on a special government mandate to support small and medium-sized businesses. These advantages partially mitigate the credit risks associated with the loan portfolio on the consolidated balance sheet of the Corporation. Thus, the SCA reflects the adequate business profile, as well as the strong assessment of capitalization and profitability, the weak assessment of the risk profile, and the adequate position in funding and liquidity. The SCA is based on consolidated data that unites the Corporation with its subsidiaries (hereinafter, the Group).
The Corporation is a development institution for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) regulated by Federal Law No. 209-FZ “On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation” (the Law). The Corporation’s objective is to coordinate state support for SMEs. The Corporation financially supports SMEs by issuing guarantees and sureties (similar functions matching their scope of activities are exercised by guaranteeing entities as per the Corporation’s supervision in the frames of the National Guaranteeing System) and creates other conditions for their concessional funding through partner banks, other financial entities, and subsidiaries, including SME Bank JSC (ACRA rating: A-(RU), outlook Stable, SCA at ‘bb+’). In addition, the Corporation is authorized to provide advisory and training services to small and medium businesses for their more efficient development and involvement in the procurement procedures of the country’s largest customers, as well as advisory services to public servants and large businesses for tighter connections with SMEs.
In ACRA’s opinion, the Group’s operating activities are economically close to banking business (in addition, the Group has a large subsidiary, which is a bank), which determines the Agency’s approaches to assigning the SCA.
Key assessment factors
The degree of support is assessed as very high. The Corporation is an entity associated with the state: it operates on the basis of a special legislative act and is controlled by the state. As part of the implementation of its functions and powers, the Corporation acts as one of the key participant in the national project “Small and Medium Enterprises and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiatives.”
In accordance with the Law, the composition of the Corporation’s management bodies, including the CEO, is determined by the Government of the Russian Federation. Thus, the state has full control over the Corporation’s strategy and operations. The state provides the Corporation with support in the form of equity contributions at the expense of federal budget funds in an amount sufficient for the successful implementation of the functions and powers of the Corporation. For the period from 2017 to 2025, the Corporation’s equity was increased by a total of about RUB 53.8 bln.
Moreover, in accordance with the Law, in order to fulfill obligations under certain sureties and independent guarantees, the Corporation is provided with state support at the expense of the federal budget. The amount of a subsidy granted to the Corporation for this year is about RUB 5.25 bln, and the amount of an additional subsidy for 2027–2028 is RUB 12.4 bln.
The adequate business profile assessment (bbb+) is due to the presence of a niche specially designated for the Corporation, which, using regular government support, performs, on its behalf, unique functions of developing the SME segment without experiencing significant pressure from competitors.
The key products for the Corporation’s clients are sureties and guarantees, which, in their volumes, form the basis of the Group’s operational activities. The flagship area remains the issuance of umbrella sureties, while the volume of sureties issued under the SME Lending Incentive Program (LIP sureties) is continuing to shrink against the background of the prevailing market conditions.
ACRA notes a significant slowdown in the growth of the portfolio of guarantees and sureties in 2024 and even its shrinkage in 2025. The main reason is a reduction of the agreed size of government subsidies and capital injections, which are a backbone component in determining the volume of support provided by the Corporation to SMEs. The Agency expects the dynamics of the total portfolio to remain constrained in 2026, with the share of umbrella sureties growing and the share of LIP sureties decreasing on the back of the still tight monetary policy.
Lending, the next most important area of activity after sureties and guarantees, for which SME Bank JSC is responsible within the Group, has also been reduced over the past 12 months, and this trend is expected to continue in 2026.
A more cautious business development will allow for better risk management and reducing the pressure on capitalization.
Strong assessment of capitalization and profitability. Maximizing financial results is not a priority for the Corporation, which is in line with the mandate of a development institution: the average return on assets and off-balance sheet credit liabilities over the past five full years, as calculated using the consolidated IFRS data and cleared of one-off items, is close to zero. This figure also takes into account expert adjustments. Thus, last year’s profit was significantly affected by the impairment provisions in the portfolio of guarantees and sureties. ACRA understands that a significant portion of these reserves was created due to the excessively conservative methodology adopted by the Corporation, therefore, the Agency adjusted the above calculations to the size of these conservatively created excess reserves. Over the next 12 months, an amended methodology for reflecting credit losses is expected to be applied, which will lead to a gradual recovery of previously created excess reserves.
In addition to profits, the Corporation’s capital is supported by regular injections from the government and forms about 49% of the balance sheet and 16.4% of the total balance sheet and off-balance sheet credit commitments at the beginning of 2026 (according to the consolidated IFRS financial statements), which viewed as a relatively high level. The comfortable regulatory ratios of both the Corporation (the capital adequacy ratio at the beginning of the year was 21.8%) and the second most important member for the Group, SME Bank JSC (the capital adequacy ratio at the beginning of the year was 15.6%), support ACRA’s conclusions.
The Agency does not predict significant pressure on capital indicators in the next 12 months amid the expected restrained growth of exposures. Comfortable operational efficiency indicators continue to support the credit rating.
The weak risk profile is mainly determined by the relatively poor quality of the loan portfolio held on the balance sheet of SME Bank JSC and consolidated into the Group’s assets. The share of potentially non-performing borrowers is above average compared to similar loans granted to SMEs in the country (ACRA takes into account that individual problem loans were issued before the changes in SME Bank JSC’s strategy and management structure and have now been fully reserved, therefore, in accordance with the Agency’s methodology, these problem loans are excluded from the calculation above).
In off-balance sheet credit related liabilities, the share of non-performing contingent liabilities has increased over the past year to about 5.3%, which, less impairment provisions, amounts to about 11.4% of the Group’s equity. In terms of capitalization, these exposures remain manageable due to the presence of special credit loss prevention mechanisms like maximum payment limits contemplated by the umbrella surety agreements, as well as because the fulfillment of obligations under most of the specified non-performing items, if necessary, is mainly expected through subsidies provided to the Corporation.
The Agency notes that the credit risk management specifics for umbrella sureties and sureties under the Program for Developing Lending to Small and Medium-Sized Businesses differ fundamentally. Regarding the first one, possible negative effects are mitigated by state subsidies to compensate for losses; in the second case, the program sets forth that obligors are participating banks whose credit risks are, by default, lower than those of SMEs.
The adequate assessment of funding and liquidity is determined by the large proportions of liquid assets on the balance sheet and capital in the resource base structure, as well as a significant and stable amount of funds from a related entity and the Bank of Russia under one of the state programs for the development of SMEs. ACRA expects the current approaches to asset and liability management to remain unchanged over the 12-month horizon.
Relatively high concentrations on the largest lenders constrain the factor assessment.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
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Maintaining shareholder and operating control by the state.
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Persisting propensity of the Russian Government to provide regular and extraordinary support to the Corporation.
POTENTIAL OUTLOOK OR RATING CHANGE FACTORS
The Stable outlook assumes that the rating will highly likely stay unchanged within the 12 to 18-month horizon.
A negative rating action may be prompted by:
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Loss of shareholder and operating control by the state.
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Weakening propensity of the Russian Government to provide regular and extraordinary support to the Corporation.
RATING COMPONENTS
SCA: a-.
Support: on par with the Russian Federation.
ISSUE RATINGS
No outstanding issues have been rated.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURE
The credit rating has been assigned based on following methodologies: the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Banks and Bank Groups under the National Scale for the Russian Federation to calculate the SCA of JSC “RSMB Corporation” in terms of the approaches applicable to organizations whose activities are, in their economic essence, close to those of banks; the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings with External Support to assess factors of external influence; the Key Concepts Used by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency within the Scope of Its Rating Activities to ensure consistent and uniform application of ACRA’s methodologies, rating scales, models, and key rating assumptions.
The credit rating of JSC “RSMB Corporation” under the national scale for the Russian Federation was published by ACRA for the first time on April 27, 2018.
The credit rating and its outlook are expected to be revised within one year.
The credit rating was assigned based on data provided by JSC “RSMB Corporation”, information from publicly available sources, and ACRA’s own databases. The rating analysis was performed using the IFRS financial statements of JSC “RSMB Corporation” as of December 31, 2025.
The credit rating is solicited, and JSC “RSMB Corporation” participated in its assignment.
In assigning the credit rating, ACRA used only information, the quality and reliability of which were, in ACRA’s opinion, appropriate and sufficient to apply the methodologies.
The decision to affirm the credit rating of JSC “RSMB Corporation” at AAA(RU) and maintain a Stable outlook was made at a repeated meeting of the rating committee, taking into account ACRA’s consideration of a reasoned appeal against the decision of the initial meeting of the rating committee to affirm the credit rating of JSC “RSMB Corporation” at AAA(RU), outlook Stable. After consideration of the appeal, the decision on the credit rating level and outlook did not change. During the consideration of the appeal, new information was taken into account regarding the criteria for comparative assessment of the quality of the loan portfolio of JSC “RSMB Corporation”, which led to an improvement in the assessment of the Risk Profile sub-factor and an elevation of the SCA of JSC “RSMB Corporation” from ‘bbb+’ to ‘a-’.
ACRA provided no additional services to JSC “RSMB Corporation” during the year preceding the rating action.
No conflicts of interest were identified in the course of credit rating assignment.
