A lease is a rental agreement under which the owner of an asset allows someone else to use it for a specified time (usually minimum one year) in return for a series of fixed payments. BSTDB offers mainly four leasing-related products:

• Equity in leasing companies
• Credit lines/loans to leasing companies
• Credit lines/loans to manufacturers, for vendor leasing
• Direct net lease agreement.

In particular, the following goals should be pursued under BSTDB leasing operations:

• promoting transfer of modern technology and know-how to BSEC economies
• supporting private sector development in general- including SMEs
• facilitating and enhancing trade in capital goods among BSEC countries.

As a general rule, minimum BSTDB investment should be US$ 3 million for loans/credit lines and US$ 1 million for equity investments. To the extent possible, BSTDB leasing operations will be based on standardized contract formats, in order to minimize administrative and transaction costs.