AI-Powered Bank Guarantee Approval: WB Bank Launches New Service for Small Businesses
This summer, WB Bank (Wildberries Bank) will begin issuing electronic bank guarantees to businesses. Applications will be reviewed using artificial intelligence, cutting decision times to as little as 10 minutes. Georgy Gorshkov, Chairman of the Management Board of WB Bank and Head of Fintech at RWB, announced the initiative at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026.
The service is to be available to small and medium-sized businesses, even if they are not Wildberries partners and have never used WB Bank services before. Guarantees of up to 10 million rubles (about $127,000) can be obtained using only a passport, while larger amounts will require account statements.
Support for SMBs
Businesses will be able to apply for bank guarantees of up to 50 million rubles (about $635,000) through WB Bank's online account portal or partner platforms from any region of Russia. An AI model will assess the applicant's risk of failing to meet contractual obligations and issue a decision within minutes.
The service will be integrated with the Register of Independent Guarantees maintained by the Federal Treasury through the Unified Information System. Because electronic bank guarantees are stored digitally on a secure platform, the risk of forgery is effectively eliminated. At the same time, the guarantees can be integrated directly into a company's document management systems.
For small businesses, a bank guarantee can provide a significant competitive advantage. It increases the likelihood of securing commercial contracts and opens the door to participation in tenders and government procurement programs.
Expanding the B2B Business
WB Bank has been steadily expanding its B2B offerings. In 2025, it joined the guarantee system operated by the SME Corporation, broadening financing opportunities for small businesses. Over the past year, the bank launched more than 30 new products and services, including online accounting tools, foreign trade services, and other offerings with AI embedded into their operating models. These products are available to both sole proprietors and corporate clients.
“WB Bank has achieved multiple-fold growth in its financial and operational performance by launching services that customers understand and value, shifting interactions into digital channels, and integrating artificial intelligence into business processes,” Georgy Gorshkov said.
AI Inside the Electronic Guarantee System
The Bank of Russia has been actively encouraging AI adoption across the financial sector. To create a favorable environment, it uses both a regulatory sandbox and a special experimental legal framework, providing measured oversight for this area of fintech innovation.
Sber was among the first Russian financial institutions to deploy AI for bank-guarantee risk assessment in 2021. In 2025, Alfa-Bank relaunched its online express-guarantee platform for businesses with AI-powered capabilities. WB Bank is now joining the country's most technology-focused financial institutions by rolling out an AI-driven electronic bank guarantee platform of its own.
Competition Among Platforms
The move highlights how marketplaces and their affiliated fintech businesses are evolving into full-scale providers of financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises. By building a unified digital financing environment for SMBs and integrating it with the broader business-support infrastructure, WB Bank stands to gain meaningful advantages in the B2B market.
Over the medium term, competition among banks, digital platforms, and marketplaces for business customers is likely to intensify. Speed, automation, service accessibility, and platform functionality are increasingly becoming core assets in the digital economy.
