Moody's Investors Service (the international rating agency) gave SKB-Bank the long-term B2 and the short-term NP ratings in terms of foreign currency accounts and E+ rating in terms of financial stability. At the same time, Moscow-based Moody's Interfax Rating Agency (wholly controlled by Moody’s) assessed the bank on the national long-term Baal.ru scale. SKB-Bank was rated Russia’s 79th largest bank assets-wise in the third quarter of 2006 and Sverdlovsk Region’s third largest bank. SKB-Bank offers its services to both individuals and businesses or organizations and tries to set up new offices in compliance with geographical and financial interests of its partners and clients, Moody’s experts report.

They say Moody’s ratings indicate that SKB-Bank manages to rapidly expand the scale of its retail operations and lending to small- and medium-scale businesses through clever geographical positioning of its offices in the Ural Region, one of Russia’s most competitive areas. The bank’s share of the local mortgage lending market is also very significant. The company’s plans to welcome the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as one of its strategic investors through a minority share holding this year are bound to support SKB-Bank’s capital and development and have therefore served as an additional argument in favor of Moody’s propitious rating.

The bank’s consolidated assets amounted to $405.8 million and their net profits to $4.5 million at the end of 2005, the press officer reports.