OREANDA-NEWS. Over the first six months of 2007, the assets of Raiffeisen Bank Aval increased by 26.3% to Hr35.1 billion. "We continued our growth path and all customers groups — big corporate customers, small and medium size enterprises and private individuals — contributed to this development," stated Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, chairman of the Managing Board of Raiffeisen Bank Aval. Mr. Lavrenchuk also underlined that the bank showed strong growth in the business year 2006, when its assets increased by 44 per cent.

According to Raiffeisen Bank Aval's press-service, during the period between January 1 and June 30, 2007, the bank earned a record before-tax profit of Hryvna 329 million that is 64% higher than a year ago. According to the statistics of the National Bank of Ukraine, Raiffeisen Bank Aval became the most profitable bank in Ukraine in the first half of 2007. At the same time, the bank also continued its steady growth, accompanied by the important institutional changes and improvements in the area of personnel development and compensation system, upgrading of operation systems and revision of the personnel responsibilities in the Bank’s branches.

During this period, the Bank also enhanced its key procedures and risk management systems, continued developing its branch network, creating centralized call and collection center, and finalizing re-branding process. "Raiffeisen Bank Aval is the largest investment in our group's history. Owing to the strategic importance of the Ukrainian market as such as well as its market position, we consider Raiffeisen Bank Aval as one of our key strategic assets for our continued success in Central and Eastern Europe," said Herbert Stepic, CEO of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG. He added, "We are working hard to transform Raiffeisen Bank Aval into a modern, efficient frontrunner of Ukrainian banking and to reach our ambitious internal targets for the next couple of years."

Raiffeisen Bank Aval, founded in March 1992 as Bank Aval, is the second largest bank in Ukraine in terms of assets. Headquartered in Kyiv, Raiffeisen Bank Aval reported total assets of UAH 35.1 billion as of 30 June, 2007. It is a subsidiary of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG, the holding company of the subsidiaries of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (RZB) in Central and Eastern Europe. The country-wide branch network of Raiffeisen Bank Aval comprises about 1,300 business outlets, located in large cities, region and rayon centers, towns of regional subordination and individual villages in all regions of Ukraine.