Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich, Austria' second largest bank, has led the syndication of an uncollaterised loan for MDM Bank of Moscow, the first of its kind Russia since the 1998 financial crisis.

The loan is a short-term pre-export facility for MDM, the Russian private bank. The loan is relatively small at $13m (€14.8m), but according to Alexandre Kotcherguine, managing director at MDM, it is the first of many larger uncollaterised loans in the Russian market in which western banks are showing an interest.