OREANDA-NEWS. On March 17, 2009 Alliance Bank (Almaty), a company listed on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), provided KASE with a press release dated March 16, 2009 of the following content, reported the press-centre of KASE:

Alliance Bank announced the beginning of enhancement of internal business processes, organizational structure and sales channels. Necessity in reforms was triggered by adoption of new strategic targets for the Bank with account to continuing impact of the global financial crisis on the Kazakhstan economy.

It is known, an accent on consumer crediting development in 2004-2007 allowed Alliance Bank to obtain leading positions in retail business and become a systemic bank of the country. However, changes in economical situation made it clear to the Bank management that new strategic targets need to be assigned within the context of participation of the Bank in the Anti-crisis program of the Kazakhstan Government.

Within the frames of its new strategy Alliance Bank is remaining a universal financial institution, however a bigger accent will be made on service of small and middle businesses. At this stage of development Alliance Bank is concentrating on implementation of programs planned within the frames of the Plan of joint actions of the Kazakhstan Government, the National Bank and the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Regulation and Supervision of Financial Market and Financial Organizations (AFS) on stabilization of economy and financial system for 2009-2010".

Under change of specifics and business volume, and because of operation effect and profitability, the Bank management considered it necessary to enhance internal business processes, organization structure and sales channels, within the frames of which the number of units and staff will be reduced.

As was announced by the Alliance Bank Board Chairman Maksat Kabashev, "we made a difficult, however, necessary decision to enhance sales channels, organization structure and business processes, as one of the major priorities is improvement of effectiveness of Alliance Bank operation. Changes in the state economy entailed changes of strategic targets of the Bank, and these targets require that the entire business structure be restructured".