‘The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s decision to buy a share holding of SKB-Bank is definitely a good thing for the latter. The decision was made after the EBRD looked into SKB-Bank’s investing potential, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is now going to support this Russian bank with both finances and shared expertise in the field of bank management and operational policies,’ General Director of Blagodat Securities Investment Company Vsevolod Chaschin said to UrBC.

SKB-Bank reports it signed the share-selling agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on May 24, 2007. The share holding is constituted by the bank’s additional share issue and comes to 25%, which makes the EBRD one of SKB-Bank’s largest stockholders.

According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the bank intends to support SKB-Bank technology-wise within the framework of a project targeted at making institutional improvements within Russian regional banks; the idea behind the project is to fortify their risk management mechanisms involving both businesses and individual customers.

‘A bank is normally assessed on the basis of three criteria: resources, capital, and the ability to manage them both; SKB-Bank does have resources as well as skilled personnel and competent managers, which means it only lacked additional capital in order to move on. This is why the recent deal is a great achievement,’ Mr. Chaschin observed.