The Bank considers retail banking not only as an integral part of services provided to corporate clients, but also as an independent segment of the banking market, which significantly extends the customer base and yields sustainable income.
In the preceding years, the Bank had been oriented to work with corporate clients and had not taken an active position in the retail market. However, in 2001, balances in individual°s current deposit accounts increased from RUR481 million to RUR1.004 billion. Thus, the indicator in question grew more than twofold for the second consecutive year. Recognising potential benefits and capacity of banking for individuals, the Bank Board established the Directorate of Private Banking (DPB) at the end of last year. The DPB°s major task is to provide a wide range of services to individual clients, using the latest banking technologies. These include: settlements, purchase and sale of foreign cash, transactions with securities, foreign exchange conversion, encashment of plastic cards issued by the majority of payment systems, examination of banknotes and payment documents, sale of ingot gold and commemorative coins, and deposit services.
We believe that the decision to establish the DPB would allow the Bank, at its current development stage, to occupy its own niche at the retail market and prepare a good basis for future work in that banking sector.
Year 2001 was quite successful for the Bank°s card business: the latter increased significantly by all major indicators. The issue of Europay International plastic cards increased 4 times; the Bank°s ATM network increased 3 times; and the network of trade and service companies which accept cards of the international payment systems is growing rapidly.
Such noticeable growth was achieved due the reliable technological basis and high-quality service. The Bank developed a broad range of products based on the international plastic cards such as Eurocard/MasterCard Gold, Visa Gold, Eurocard/MasterCard Mass, Visa Classic, Eurocard/MasterCard Business, VISA Business, Cirrus/Maestro and Visa Electron. The Bank offers its customers debit and credit cards designed for individuals and legal entities.
The Bank makes an emphasis on the introduction of new banking technologies in compliance with international standards. In particular, it used international plastic cards to implement projects at large industrial enterprises in south-east Tatarstan; it initiated and is successfully implementing a service project for customers of the Non-governmental Pension Fund, as well as wage projects in Moscow and S. Petersburg.
Taking into account the results achieved and to ensure a further growth of the card business, in August 2001 the Bank Board decided to establish a processing centre for the products of the international payment systems (VISA International and Europay International). The establishment of its own processing centre is one of the Bank°s strategic priorities whose implementation would allow a qualitatively new, better level of services to the Bank°s customers and partners, an improved safety and a higher rate of operations, and an opportunity to create new banking products.
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