OREANDA-NEWS. On October 10, Standard & Poor’s gave MDM Bank the top score in its annual survey of Transparency and Disclosure by Russian Banks for the second consecutive year, the press service of the bank announced. MDM confidently retained its leadership in Standard & Poor’s report with a score of 71% in 2007, up from 69% in 2006. MDM Bank CEO, Michel Perhirin, said: “We at MDM are all highly pleased with the results of this year’s survey by Standard & Poor’s. MDM has consistently sought to increase transparency on all fronts and being named the top Russian bank for the second year in a row means our efforts are being formally recognized. The informal, but no less important, result for MDM Bank is the high level of trust we have earned from stakeholders that seek information about the bank. I am also quite pleased that S&P has observed improvements in transparency and disclosure among many of our peers as well, and am confident that MDM will continue to lead the group as the Russian banking sector continues to develop.”

The Standard & Poor’s survey uses only publicly available information: 110 criteria were employed to evaluate transparency and disclosure practices in 30 Russian banks. The average level of transparency of Russian banks increased to 52% in 2007, as compared to 48% in 2006.

Additionally, 29 out of 30 banks improved their scores, according to Standard & Poor’s.