UNIASTRUM BANK development history

UNIASTRUM BANK (LLC) was founded in 1994. Registered with the CBR on March 31, 1994, CBR General License no. 2771 dd. May 5, 2005.

UNIASTRUM BANK today is a universal credit institution offering to its clients a wide range of modern financial products and services with an equally high quality in all outlets. The bank’s outlets throughout the whole of Russia employ over 4 thousand highly skilled professionals, and have hundreds of thousands of loyal clients.

UNIASTRUM BANK operates for the welfare of its clients and evolves together with them. Services aimed at satisfaction of the needs of private customers, small and medium-sized enterprises are among the most demanded of the services provided by the bank.

The key strategic target of the bank is to achieve the long-term business value growth. The current tasks are as follows:

Development of a modern, client-focused, universal, competitive bank aimed at servicing retail clients, small and medium-sized enterprises;
Transfer to the corporate governance model corresponding to the best foreign practices fostering improvement of the risk management quality in contemporary conditions of the banking business;
Further development and higher efficiency of the regional network;
On-going quality improvement of service supply to the clients via investments in the bank’s information technologies and human resources.

Development of the branches infrastructure.

Starting from 2001 UNIASTRUM BANK has been actively developing its branches infrastructure. At present the bank is a top-10 bank in the total number of outlets and is ranked first among private banks in the number of the Moscow region outlets. As of October 01, 2008, 42 branches were registered and over 220 outlets in 45 Russian regions.

In July 2001 the first branch of UNIASTRUM BANK was opened in Ivanovo, in 2002 – in Rostov-on-Don.

In 2003 UNIASTRUM BANK started to actively develop the regional network; branches were opened in Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Samara, Saratov, Krasnoyarsk, Tyumen, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Stavropol, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Volgograd and Novosibirsk. From 2004 to 2007 UNIASTRUM BANK opened 26 more branches in various Russian regions and at present the network of branches covers 45 RF regions.

The network of sales in the Moscow region is growing quickly. In 2004, 6 outlets were opened in the region, in 2005 – 14 outlets, in 2006, 27 outlets were opened already.

At present over 220 outlets of UNIASTRUM BANK operate in all the key regions of Russia.

Today the key task in the development of branches of UNIASTRUM BANK is improvement of their operations, increase in efficiency of activities and profitability of the existing branches and outlets.

The Bank’s operations may be subdivided into three main categories: retail banking, corporate banking, investment activities and financial markets.

Retail banking. The Bank offers to private clients all the spectrum of banking services according to the most up-to-date standards. The volumes of business with individual clients are constantly increasing which proves the growing trust in the Bank and a high assessment of the quality of services on behalf of private clients.

The Bank offers to individual clients, among others, different types of loans, cash management services, deposit services, issue of plastic (debit and overdraft) cards, a wide range of operations with cash funds, the system of immediate money transfers UNISTREAM.

The volume of the UNIASTRUM BANK mortgage portfolio grew in 2007 twice from RUR 4.8 to RUR 8 bln., and the number of loans issued in 2007 constituted 4,112. As of 01.07.08 the volume of the mortgage portfolio of UNIASTRUM BANK constituted RUR 5.5 bln. and as of 01.10.2008 – RUR 4.9 bln.

2005 saw a significant growth of issued car loans in number. The loan portfolio grew by 3.8 times to reach as of 01.01.06 nearly RUR 2 bln. For the next 2 years the portfolio grew by over 200%, and as of 01.01.08 the portfolio amounted to RUR 4.4 bln. In 2008 the bank continued to actively develop this business line. According to the bank’s financial statements, the car loans issued by UNIASTRUM BANK for 6 months in 2008 amounted to over RUR 2 bln. The average volume of car loans issued in 2008 amounted to RUR 350 mln. The car loans issued in Moscow for 6 months in 2008 amounted to RUR 296,038. This was by 40% more than in 2H2007. The volume of issue of car loans by UNIASTRUM BANK in the Russian regions is constantly growing as well. In 1H2008 it amounted to RUR 1,792,076 thousand which is by 35% more than in 2H2007, and by 72% more than one year earlier (1H2007 – RUR 1,039,975 thousand). On the basis of the results of 9 months in 2008, the UNIASTRUM BANK portfolio of car loans amounted to RUR 5.8 bln.

In 2006 UNIASTRUM BANK was granted the Principal Member status in the VISA INTERNATIONAL payment system, and received a status of affiliated member of the MasterCard Worldwide payment system. As of 01.10.08 UNIASTRUM BANK issued over 500 thousand cards, out of which 138 thousand cards were issued in the framework of salary projects; over 1900 contracts were concluded with enterprises for organization of salary projects; over 660 ATMs were installed; 1120 terminal were installed in the trade and service enterprises. The credit card loans issued to individuals by UNIASTRUM BANK during 9 months in 2008 amounted to RUR 712.5 mln., and consumer loans for the same period amounted to RUR 676.7 mln., while the balances on accounts of the card holder clients amounted to RUR 1.8 bln.

The volume of term deposits of individuals grew in 2007 by 1.73 times – from RUR 14.4 bln. to RUR 24.8 bln., and as of 01.10.08 it amounted to over RUR 25.8 bln. The money transfers via the UNISTREAM system in the bank’s outlets amounted in 1H2008 to RUR 35 bln., and the commission income of UNIASTRUM BANK for cash management services to individuals amounted in 1H2008 to RUR 51.5 mln. The total amount of UNISTREAM money transfers during 9 months of 2008 constituted RUR 57.2 bln., and commission income for these transactions exceeded RUR 323.5 mln.

Corporate banking. Corporate banking is one of the bank’s priorities. Today this business is a complex system including over one hundred of banking products and a big variety of financial services. To the corporate clients the bank offers cash management services, lending and business investment support, project financing involving fund-raising from foreign financial institutions, transactions with bank cards, salary projects.

Starting from 2006 the corporate client base increased by 2 times to reach 24 thousand corporate clients (about 27 thousand transaction accounts). The loan portfolio grew by almost 5 times during 2 years and amounted as of 01.07.08 to RUR 26.6 bln.

Starting from 2007 the bank started to actively offer project and trade financing services raising credit resources from the foreign financial institutions. The volume of credit deals concluded with foreign counterparties secured by foreign export credit insurance agencies exceeded USD 17.5 mln. The volume of deals concluded in the framework of the limits set for trade finance operations amounted to USD 16.7 mln.

Small and medium-sized enterprises. In this segment the bank offers a big variety of loan and deposit products for competitive prices to individual entrepreneurs and companies via the Moscow and regional branches network. Cooperation of UNIASTRUM BANK with the Small Business Assistance Fund in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian regions brings about an active development of SME products. In October 2007 UNIASTRUM BANK and the Moscow Administration signed the Cooperation Program providing for allocation of funds up to RUR 1 bln. for the program participants.

The 2008 results showed that the bank’s total balance had grown by 50% - up to RUR 90.2 mln. In 2008 the bank’s own capital increased by more than 40% to reach RUR 7.6 bln. as of 01.01.2009. In July 2008 UNIASTRUM BANK raised a EUR 12.5 mln. subordinated loan from the Bank of Cyprus (Public Company Limited) for a term of 5 years which enabled the bank to raise its net worth up to RUR 6 bln. In December 2008 the charter capital of UNIASTRUM BANK was increased by RUR 1.2 bln. (USD 50 mln.).

On October 31, 2008, the deal of purchase of 80% of the UNIASTRUM BANK stakes by the Bank of Cyprus was closed. The Bank of Cyprus Group is a big international holding structure founded in 1899 and being the leading banking and financial services group in Cyprus and Greece (the bank’s share in the internal banking market exceeds 30%). The deal amounted to USD 576 mln. The charter capital of UNIASTRUM BANK was raised by USD 50 mln. This purchase is the biggest investment in the Russian banking sector on behalf of the financial institutions of Greece and Cyprus. The deal was closed after permissions of the Central Bank of Cyprus and Central Bank of Russia, as well as of the Federal Antimonopoly Service had been obtained.

On November 19, 2008, in the framework of official negotiations, the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and President of the Republic of Cyprus Dimitris Christofias signed the memorandum on cooperation between UNIASTRUM BANK and the Bank of Cyprus Group. The memorandum provides for roll-out of a joint program of lending to SMEs in the Russian territory to the total amount of RUR 15 bln. and planned for three years (2009-2011).

The significant financial potential of UNIASTRUM BANK is confirmed by the international credit ratings. On November 24, 2008, the international rating agency Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the long-term credit rating of UNIASTRUM BANK by three points to Ba2 (stable forecast), and the long-term national credit rating was upgraded by the Moody’s Interfax Rating Agency from Baa1 to Аа2.

In 2006 UNIASTRUM BANK was awarded the annual national “Company of the Year” business prize “For Successful Business Strategy”.

In 2007 UNIASTRUM BANK was awarded the annual banking national prize for the progress made in development of a network of branches and was awarded the National Banking Award as the “Most Dynamically Developing Bank”.

In July 2008 UNIASTRUM BANK was recognized as one of the most recognizable Russian brands and was awarded a “Best Russian Brand” diploma.