OREANDA-NEWS. On January 29, 2007 the Meeting of Sberbank's Supervisory Board approved a new organization structure for the Central Head Office and the changes to the Sberbank's Board, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

The new organisational chart features structural division into retail block and corporate block, and establishing a separate block for regional branch network development; it offers a streamlined organisation and eliminates functional redundancy of support and maintenance departments (Operations, Administration and Finance) and another one in charge of the strategy and development of the Bank. It also sets a Board of Chairmen of Regional Head Offices under the Bank's Chairman and CEO. Two committees for strategic & corporate development and IT are established.

The new organisational structure is seen as one of the primary moves to reform the Bank and to make it more competitive, resulting in active development of the banking services market, facilitating expansion in the key areas of the Bank's business and launching new banking products. The new organisation is transitional and will continue in effect until the Bank adopts a five-year strategy before the end of 2008.

Structural changes come as the first step towards embracing international practices of corporate governance and attaining a number of critical objectives, which include better transparency and clear-cut assignment of responsibility, a more efficient interaction between the Central Head Office and the regional structures and a departure from over-concentration of authority.
The Meeting approved the following changes to the Board and nominations of the new Board members:

- Mr A. Karamzin, Deputy Chairman of the Board, in charge of Finance

- Mr D. Bougrov, Board Member, Senior Vice President, in charge of Corporate Development

- Ms O. Kanovich, Board Member, Senior Vice President, in charge of Operations

- Mr S. Kuznetsov, Board Member, Senior Vice President, in charge of Administration

- Mr V. Orlovski, Board Member, Senior Vice President, in charge of IT

Ms A. Aleshkina, Ms I. Bokhan, Mr A. Brinza, Mr A. Manoilo, and Mr A. Pogodin resigned as Board members due to changing the office.

The Board will continue work under the new management structure. The new organisation chart is presented on Sberbank's corporate web-site (www.sbrf.ru).

Speaking after the meeting, Herman Gref, Sberbank's Chairman of the Board and CEO said:
'By approving the new management structure today, we have made a very important step to raise competitiveness and to cement leadership of our Bank. The new structure opens up unprecedented opportunities for both qualified staff already working at the Bank and the new members of the team.
 
The new structure and new line-up of our management team is a way to preserve continuity, to keep our qualified staff and to accelerate the upgrade process we are about to launch. We will come forward with a new long-term development strategy in 2008. The team is drafting it already. '

Mr Sergei Ignatiev, CBR Chairman and Chairman of Sberbank's Supervisory Board, said:
'We welcome the changes to the management system and the line-up of the management team, as we believe they will meet the current and strategic challenges facing the Bank'.