OREANDA-NEWS. On 08 July 2008 was announced, that BTA Bank is the biggest bank in Kazakhstan by assets, equity capital and net income, according to the annual rating TOP 1000 of world banks from The Banker. The rating report was released on July 2 in London at Kazakhstan Growth Forum arranged by Adam Smith Conferences.

BTA Bank also ranked number 173 in the TOP 200 compared to the 295th position a year ago.

Thus, BTA Bank appears in The Banker’s Highest Movers for a second year in a row along with other major banks who gained more than 100 scores for a year.

This time Adam Smith Conferences that arranges stand-out forums in Western Europe has invited Chairman of BTA Bank Board of Directors Mukhtar Ablyazov to an exclusive meeting with the biggest western companies and leading business editions.

"Ten years ago when people had low trust in banks, BTA faced a task to gain the lead in Kazakhstan. And we have scored success. BTA assets have soared by 225 times and capital swollen by 463 times. As of January 1, 2008 BTA Bank turned into the biggest bank by equity capital in Kazakhstan and ranked among top five banks in the CIS. I would provide a reminder that we have climbed to success after we efficiently tided over the global liquidity squeeze without a government support. We have proven our ability to achieve the set task. Today BTA Bank wants to become a leading international financial group," Mr Ablyazov indicated.

BTA Bank embarked on the rebranding campaign in 2007. The development strategy of BTA Group required a new brand that would be international, universal and clear in all countries where the banking conglomerate operates. Thus, almost all banks and financial institutions within BTA Group will have one brand and will share unified standards of business conduct and client approach.

An unparalleled advantage of BTA - a broad chain throughout the CIS - coupled with advanced banking technologies and awareness of specifics of each region in Eurasia will provide the Group with an access to the internal sources of the CIS. In particular, in 2007 BTA secured first profit from its subsidiaries.

"Within next two years we expect to raise USD 4 billion retail deposits and the same amount of corporate deposits in Russia alone," said Ablyazov.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of BTA Bank Board of Directors refuted default forecasts of western experts for Kazakhstan. He claims the lack of defaults and bankruptcy in the banking system when a crunch erupted indicates a sound margin safety.

BTA Bank is among biggest banks in the CIS with an extensive banking chain. BTA consolidated assets in the first quarter of 2008 totaled 3,164 billion tenge (USD 26.2 million), a 3% year-on-year increase, the capital grew by 2.1% up to 463 billion tenge (USD 3.8 billion). Its consolidated net income as of April 1, 2008 made 15.6 billion tenge (USD 129 million), 25% more vs. the first quarter of 2007.

BTA strategic partner banks operate in Ukraine, four regions of Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. BTA Bank also runs representative offices in Russia, Ukraine, China and the United Arab Emirates.

BTA Bank runs a broad regional network throughout Kazakhstan (22 branches and 280 cash settlement centers) and a biggest chain of ATMs (160). It services more than 1.2 million individual and 100,000 corporate clients.

In 2006 and 2007 reputed Itogi magazine named BTA Bank The Best CIS Bank and Euromoney declared it The Best Bank in Central Asia. BTA also appears in the Banker’s TOP 300 and ranks the third in its Highest Movers rating. The Europe Business Assembly (EBA, Oxford, UK) named BTA ‘the Best Enterprise of Europe’ in the Eurasian banking sector in 2007.