The Banker magazine has announced the results of its contest in The Bank of The Year in Russia nomination, conferring the winner title on Sberbank.
The Banker holds annual contests for this title. For that purpose, banking analysts review a variety of the most essential performance results of credit institutions in the previous year, including tier one capital, shareholders equity growth rate, net assets, net profit, branch network, modern banking technologies etc.
Recognition of Sberbank as the best Russian bank comes as a fair appreciation of its leadership in the Russian financial sector and a testimony of improvements under way in the Russian banking sector. Victory in such a prominent contest testifies to the efficiency of Sberbank's long-term strategy for becoming a universal bank on a global scale. Global and domestic investors regard Sberbank investor-attractive. Sberbank was the first Russian bank to receive an investment rating. Its capitalisation today approximates USD8bn.
The international activities of the banks are a very important factor for The Banker's analysts. It is natural that the placement by Sberbank of USD1bn floating rate notes on global capital markets on the terms that were the most favourable for Russian banks, has further enhanced its market leadership. This international debut helped Sberbank to consolidate its global reputation.
This July, The Banker named Sberbank (for the third time) the largest bank in Central and Eastern Europe. It is noted in the magazine's press release that Russian banks are the undisputed leaders among the banks in this region. Fourteen Russian banks are on the list of 25 largest regional banks.

Sberbank's Press Service