February 27, 2013. Banki.ru, an information & analytics service, did an express research on the changes on the bank cards market since the beginning of 2013. The analysts behind this research observe that lending through credit cards is one of the most interesting and fastest-developing retail banking market segments at the moment, SKB-Bank reports.

The total lending portfolio (for private individuals and via credit cards) rose by 4.5% up to 674bn RUR for the largest thirty banks. On average, the lending portfolio growth rate for the banks that were featured in this ranking amounted to 4.7% a month. As for SKB-Bank, the figure went up by5.4% and reached 6bn RUR, which meant the bank could make it to the 20th position in the rating of Russia’s largest credit card-issuing banks.

In fact, SKB-Bank’s Zapaska credit card was on the Stock Market Leader magazine’s list of the country’s most promising credit cards last year. This was due to the fact that the bank offers very appealing terms to the cardholders: the interest rate comes to only 15% a year if you use the card for cashless payments, and no fees are charged if you pay the money back within the grace period.