RBC.Rating came up with a report on the Russian banks’ performance in the first half of 2008. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the 17th position in the ranking of Most Customer-Oriented Banks, according to the volume of collateral-free loans it offered the customers in the six months of 2008. This came to 6.24 billion RUR (92.93% better than a year earlier) and was actually the top result in Ural Federal District.

‘The Bank of Russia reports banks are starting to slow down on consumer loans. Their total private individual lending portfolio rose by 20.8% in the first half of 2008 compared with the 24.2% increase in the first half of 2007. A collateral-free loan is often the customer’s first experience of cooperating with a bank; some banks, however, seem unable to do the adequate risk assessment or don’t have enough resources to keep offering this mass demand product. Our bank’s risk management system is based on advanced technologies and enables us to make the right decisions, which is why we did so well in the rating,’ says the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Strategic Development Director Andrei Emelyanov.