OREANDA-NEWS. May 20, 2009, was the day when Sviaz-Bank was established 18 years ago, reported the press-centre of Sviaz-Bank.

Sviaz-Bank today is one of the biggest financial institutions in the Russian Federation, with a history and traditions to be proud of. Last year was, to an extent, a turning point and a difficult period the like of which the Bank has rarely lived through in its 18 years of existence. The significant changes that occurred over that period have affected Sviaz-Bank’s future operation and development.

Now, Sviaz-Bank has a state-controlled corporation, the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank), for its majority shareholder that holds 99.3% of the Bank’s shares of stock. What is more, the Bank’s Authorized Capital has increased 14-fold, to 75.1 billion rubles as of May 1, 2009.

“The stabilization measures undertaken within the framework of the financial rehabilitation program have enabled the Bank to restore its capital foundations and achieve compliance with the capital adequacy requirements,” said Alexander Zhitnik, Sviaz-Bank’s President-Management Board Chairman. “As a way to reinforce the Bank’s position still further, these measures were backed up with organizational moves, such as, for example, operational costs have been cut significantly, a new management team formed, and a new organizational structure and a new system to run the Bank have been put in place. All these moves are aimed at attaining the strategic goals challenging the Bank and strengthening the long-term relations of partnership with our customers.”

Sviaz-Bank continues to offer its active cooperation and provide funding to the country’s biggest communications companies, in particular, Sviazinvest, the Post of Russia (Federal State Unitary Enterprise), Rostelecom, MegaPhone, and Interregional Transit Telecom, and also business companies in other sectors of the Russian economy.

Sviaz-Bank’s retail banking strategy is focused on the general consumer. One of its primary objectives is to make banking services accessible to broad segments of the population through, among other outlets, post offices operated by the Post of Russia FSUE. The Bank is steadfastly building up its portfolio of individual deposits. In the first quarter of this year, individual deposits with Sviaz-Bank rose by more than 1 billion rubles, and the Bank expects their total to reach 7 billion rubles toward late December 2009.