"Getting a loan is still considered a service for VIP clients, " says Nikolai Zinoviev.

FORBES: Companies & Strategies

"When we first started, our clients were small businesses, " Zinoviev says.

FORBES: Companies & Strategies

Zinoviev, 28, whose informal conversational style sounds almost American, went to work in 1995 at Delta Capital (formerly TUSRIF, a venture-capital fund set up by the U.S. Congress to incubate Russian businesses).

FORBES: Companies & Strategies