Sber supports the "deposit scheme" for allocating NWF funds for the Moscow — Petersburg high-speed rail project

Sberbank supports the government's decision to provide funds from the National Welfare Fund (NWF) for the construction of the Moscow—St. Petersburg high-speed railway through subordinated deposits from banks. This was announced by Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank.

"This solution is mutually beneficial for both the government and banks: on the one hand, the Ministry of Finance transfers project risk to banks, and on the other hand, banks receive the necessary capital increase, which will improve their standards and expand lending opportunities to the country's economy," he said.

Vedyakhin recalled that "previously in Russia there had been no precedents for banks to provide NWF funds for further related targeted use in the form of a loan to a borrower, also syndicated." Therefore, the decision on the "deposit scheme" requires a lot of work to update the regulatory documents dictating the rules for the placement and control of NWF funds, explained the first deputy chairman of the bank's board.

He added that Sberbank is leading this process on the part of banks, cooperating with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Transport. "In less than 1.5 months, we have worked together to develop a number of resolutions and orders, and some of the documents have already been successfully adopted by the government. We plan to complete this work in the next month," Vedyakhin said.

He clarified that 300 billion rubles from the NWF are provided for the HSR project, which will be distributed among banks in proportion to their financial participation in the loan agreement.

The HSR is an electrified double—track railway line for the operation of trains with speeds from 200 to 400 km/h. The Moscow — Saint Petersburg HSR will reduce the travel time between the two cities by half. In January, the head of the Ministry of Transport, Roman Starovoit, announced that the project was on schedule, and the road would be built on time.