in other words, companies really had the opportunity to use borrowed resources when they needed this. as we know from experience, small and medium - sized enterprises are especially vulnerable to crises. in 2014 – 2015, banks actually stopped providing lending to smes. this is why, immediately after the outbreak of the pandemic, we launched a special refinancing instrument amounting to 500 billion rubles at a low interest rate, which dropped as low as 2. 25 % at the end of the period. this instrument was aimed at incentivising banks to expand lending. we granted these loans only to those banks whose lending to smes was at least 90 % from the beginning of the pandemic. coupled with accommodative monetary policy and the government ’ s programmes, this made it possible to increase lending to small businesses by nearly 23 %, which is twice as much as in 2019. as regards mortgage lending, the government launched its subsidised programme. it boosted the growth of mortgage lending, households were able to improve their housing conditions, and construction, which is a very important industry for the economy, received the required resources for its fast recovery. however, as the economy bounces back, such a large - scale programme is now mostly pushing up housing prices, and this rise is not covered by the subsidised interest rate. nor does it improve the affordability of housing for people, while the main goal is to increase the affordability of housing for people. we needed a shift to more targeted programmes addressing social issues, rather than focused on boosting construction in general. this is exactly why the parameters of the subsidised programme were changed, as was announced by president putin. the next measure is reducing people ’ s and companies ’ costs for covering their daily financial needs. in other words, this is not only loan restructuring and new loans which largely offset plummeting incomes, but also lower costs in the financial sector. we introduced a free limit of 100, 000 rubles for p2p money transfers in the faster payments 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches system and obliged all banks to provide convenient access to the fps in their applications. in addition, we limited acquiring fees to reduce companies ’ costs related to cashless payments. this was a temporary measure, but it helped companies save 1. 5 % of their non - cash flows. accommodative monetary policy and, accordingly, lower deposit rates made people opt for

of the banks ’ depositors. russia has completed the reform in compulsory motor third - party liability insurance. there were many discussions and doubts about it. nonetheless, we believe that it has made the system fairer, and careful drivers now spend less money on insurance than those whose driving involves accident risks. moreover, the problem of access to insurance policies has been resolved in almost all regions. furthermore, the state duma adopted important laws on the development of financial assets, remote services, and the biometric system which are prerequisites for the future competitiveness of our financial system. we expanded the deposit insurance system to protect individual entrepreneurs ’ funds. previously, the system mostly protected only households ’ funds. the system is now already advancing to a new level and is actually expanding to embrace businesses and institutions. insurance compensation was increased to 10 million rubles in special cases. i am very glad that we have been discussing the new initiative for insurance expansion in recent days as well. thank you very much for your efforts in law making, for the ever - meaningful collaboration with the central bank, and for your attention to the issues of development in finance. this is essential since the advancement of the financial area is not an end in itself, but rather a prerequisite that will ensure economic development and improve people ’ s welfare. thank you very much for your attention. of course, i am ready to answer your questions. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches