OREANDA-NEWS  On 17 December was announced, that JSC BTA Bank was awarded the Grand Prize in the National Business Annual Report Contest, having scored the most points in information content and design among the 26 entries into the competition.

BTA topped the final table totalling average points awarded by the panel of judges for information content and design, with the two weighted at 70% and 30%, respectively.

"BTA’s annual report portrays all aspects of the financial group’s operations, with pertinent information and quality design complementing each other very well", read the panel’s verdict.

This year, the panel’s members judging information content were Bulat Babenov, Vice President, KASE, Serik Akhanov, Chairman, Financiers’ Association, Raimbek Batalov, Chairman of the Forum of Entrepreneurs, Yerkin Kaliyev, Chairman of the National Council of Corporate Governance and Alina Aldambergen, Deputy Chairperson, FSA, while Pavel Sovranchuk of the Academy of Architecture, Sergey Alekseyev and Svetlana Gordeyeva, both members of the Designers’ Union of Kazakhstan, Igor Polyakov, Vice President of the Designers’ Union and Dauren Tuleyev, Director General of the Good group of companies were the design judges.

Held for the forth time, the NB Annual Report Contest is aimed at raising the awareness of both the public and local businesses about the problem of corporate reporting, improving the culture of business information disclosure and transparency, and providing a forum for exchanging new experience in the field.

JSC BTA Bank is a leading banking network within the CIS. At the end of the first half of 2008, BTA’s consolidated assets were equal to 3,356 billion tenge (USD 27.8 billion); capital, 474 billion tenge (USD 3.9 billion). BTA’s H12008 consolidated net profit amounted to 27.83 billion tenge (USD 231 million).

The network of BTA’s partner banks extends to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. BTA’s representative offices operate in Russia, Ukraine, China and UAE.

The bank has one of the largest branch networks in Kazakhstan (22 branches and 277 service outlets) along with an extensive chain of ATMs (778) and self-service terminals (160). BTA serves more than 1.3 million retail and 100,000 corporate customers.

In 2008 BTA has increased by 100 points within the year, shifting from 295 place to 173 place among top world banks, ranks The Banker, one of the powerful business magazines. In 2006 and 2007, BTA was named the "Bank of the Year in the CIS", based on a poll of the Commonwealth’s leading financial experts by the influential Itogi magazine, and "Best Bank in Central Asia" according to the Euromoney. Oxford-based European Business Assembly (EBA) awarded to BTA its 2007 "Best Enterprise of Europe" in the banking sector of Eurasia.