OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 June 2008 was announced, that according to tentative data, in the first quarter of 2008 BTA Bank JSC was the biggest bank in Kazakhstan by assets due to growing deposits it raised on the local market.

BTA consolidated assets in January-March 2008 rose by 3% up to 3,164 billion tenge (USD 26.2 billion). The share of lending transactions in the asset profile of the Bank increased against declining transactions on the financial markets. This change was possible without prejudice to Bank’s liquidity due to a diminishing share of international loans in its liabilities.

BTA remains a leading second-tier bank in Kazakhstan by equity capital that edged up by 2.1% in the reporting quarter to reach 463 billion tenge (USD 3.8 billion).

Loan portfolio of the Bank as of April 1, 2008 totaled 2,401 billion tenge (USD 19.9 billion). The Bank is actively pursuing a promising and cost efficient activity – lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. Security of loans by provisions rose from 5.4% in late 2007 to 6.3% at the end of Q1 2008.

Liabilities of the Bank expanded by 3.1% over the quarter under review to make 2,701 billion tenge (USD 22.4 billion). This growth was achieved due to additional 18.2 billion tenge of the client deposits which totaled 670.7 billion tenge (USD 5.6 billion) as of the key date, including 13.6 billion tenge of individual deposits. This shows reviving confidence of clients in the Bank under the crisis in the financial sector of Kazakhstan. The Bank keeps discharging its obligations to international investors. Thus, in March 2008 it paid off USD 530.9 million plus USD 15 million interest. This repayment is the biggest one for BTA Bank due in 2008.

Consolidated net income of BTA in the first quarter of this year totaled 15.6 billion tenge (USD 129 million), a 25% year-on-year surge due to the growth of net interest income.

BTA Bank is among biggest banks in the CIS with an extensive banking chain. Its 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 operates an extensive branch network throughout Kazakhstan (22 branches and 283 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.