UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 29, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) made more profit in commissions the bank charged small and medium enterprises in the third quarter of the year compared with one year earlier, the bank’s press service reports.

The figure rose by 66% in the course of one year and came to 296.4m RUR.

This was mainly brought about by the increase in the amount of settlement and cash payment services offered to businesses. The number of customers who applied for banking services with the UBRD went up by 11.8% in QIII’16 compared with QIII’15. Mostly, these were retail and whole traders, transport companies, and construction businesses. On the whole, the bank’s corporates base rose by 13.7% in the course of one year, with acquiring and bank guarantee options proving the most popular services (+5.6% and +211%, respectively).

UBRD SME Sales Director Tatiana Makarova says the bank is trying to make its commission-based services more popular through competitive prices and appealing products as well as convenient online and mobile services that have to meet increasingly stricter quality standards.