OREANDA-NEWS. August 29, 2008. Credit-Standard open joint stock commercial bankis a universal lending institution serving corporate and private business. It is among the ten largest banks in Uzbekistan and occupies leading positions on reliability and stability.

Credit-Standard Bank was founded on 16 August 2003. The authorized capital at the time of registration was 1.3 billion soums, now it is 9.36 billion soums.

The bank, which regularly takes the leading place in the national rating of Ahbor-Rating agency, has managed to become one of the largest and dynamically developing banks of Uzbekistan in the five years of its activity.

The bank opened a branch network in Samarkand and Fergana, and is expanding the range of services, in particular, in retail business, and increasing the service quality.

The Banker magazine in 2006 recognized Credit-Standard as the best bank of Uzbekistan, and in 2008 it was named the country's best bank in 2007 by the Global Finance.

Chairman of board of the bank Aziz Mirjorayev told UzA that the priority policy of the bank is the client business – providing banking services to large, small and medium enterprises, individuals, as well as local and foreign banks.

The growth of the client base was largely achieved due to high level of service. Advanced banking technologies, flexible rates and individual approach have led to dynamic growth of the number of clients. The bank is steadily developing two strategic areas – corporate and retail business.

The bank entered the money transfer market in 2004 and currently occupies one of the leading places in this segment, providing various transfer systems, such as Anelik, Migom, ExpressMoney, Blizko, Western Union, etc. At the end of 2006, Western Union called the Samarkand branch of the Credit-Standard the best Western Union unit for quality of care in Uzbekistan.

New systems like Allure and Faster are currently prepared for launch. The demand for international money transfers is growing steadily, expanding their geographic range.

Last year, the bank introduced new retail services: now clients can pay for utilities and cellular communications both in the head office and branches.

Close attention is paid to establishment and development of correspondent relations with leading foreign financial institutions – first-class banks in Europe and Asia.

Today, customers receive integrated services of foreign economic activity, qualified counseling and, individual accounting schemes.

Development of cooperation with banks is focused on expansion of counteragents in the interbank market and ensuring effective and smooth functioning of the settlements on behalf of clients. Implementation of non-trade electronic bank transfers was made possible largely by the joining of the SWIFT.

The corporate credit policy is aimed at creating a broad base, consisting of large, medium and small enterprises, and building a quality loan portfolio, diversified by category of borrowers, industries and lending periods.

Credit-Standard was one of the first Uzbekistan to introduce mortgage lending, having previously launched the consumer crediting.

Another important area is lending to real sector enterprises. Partnership relations with regular borrowers and attraction of new customers have increased the bank's credit portfolio, which in the first half of 2008 increased more than 4 times compared to the same period in 2007.

The share of loans issued to enterprises of the industrial sector amounted to 70% of the lending capital. A large proportion of those are long-term investments.

To provide financial support to the real sector of the economy, increase export potential of the country and expands export-oriented and import substitution, the bank is actively working to attract foreign credit lines.

On a regular basis business meetings with representatives of leading international financial institutions such as the EBRD, Raiffeisen Bank, Commerzbank, Landesbank and others are held. In 2007, by attracting foreign credit line, the bank issued a foreign currency loan to a joint venture producing filter and technical fabrics for Navoi and Almalyk mining combines. Earlier, this production was purchased abroad and required considerable funds.

The development of information technologies has increases the quality of banking operations, creating conditions for a more flexible and efficient resource management. The bank introduced SMS-banking that allows customers with receive reports on their accounts to their mobile phones.

The internal document circulation is built on the basis of high-performance systems, enabling the bank to achieve high speed in dealing with daily tasks.

To create convenience for corporate customers, the bank introduced Client-Bank corporate system, which allows receiving timely information on the accounts. Credit-Standard is presently working on launching a new service – internet banking.