OREANDA-NEWS. March 11, 2008. The performance results achieved by the Bank for the last year proved again its status as a reliable and stable financial institution in the Republic of Belarus.

Dynamic development, financial stability, build-up of the customer base, assets quality and profit of the Bank are the basis for awarding two ratings for the Bank by two international rating agencies.

Fitch Ratings confirmed the ratings set earlier: Long-term B-, Short-term B, Individual D/E, Support 5, Stable Outlook for Long-term rating.

BPS-Bank was the first Belarusian bank to have obtained ratings from Moody’s Investors Service: Long-term on local currency deposits Ва 1, foreign currency deposits В2, Short-term on local and foreign currency deposits Not Prime, RFSB Е+ (with transformation into basic assessment of creditworthiness В2). All ratings have Stable Outlook.

All objectives set by the Monetary and credit policy and Main directions of activity of the Bank for 2007 were fulfilled.

Gross assets grew by 43% and reached BYR 5.68trln.

Systematic increase of own funds and governmental investments contributed to the growth of the regular equity by 34% up to BYR 382.5bn.

Resource base grew by 48%, namely due to obtained funds from legal entities by 41% and from individuals by 32%. The Bank secured its leading positions in the country by volumes of obtained individuals' funds.

Attractiveness of terms and the variety of deposits stimulated growth of the number of depositors which increased in 2007 by 74.6 thousand people and exceeded 1,131 thousand..

Active policy of the Bank in obtaining resources allowed to increase credit investments into the productive sector of the economy by 31% up to BYR 4.97trln. Out of them long-term loans exceeded BYR 1trln which is by 3.2 times more than in 2006.

In the framework of governmental programs the Bank financed investment projects for the total amount equal to BYR 304.6bn.

Credit resources in the amount equal to USD 1041.1m were issued to export-oriented enterprises.

The loan portfolio reached BYR 2.17trln, i.e. increased by 38% in the reported period. The portion of non-performing loans in the loan portfolio of customers and banks made 0.3%, while the limit set by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus is no more than 2%.

Further development of the Bank's cooperation with foreign financial institutions, dynamic development and financial stability allowed to increase the volume of raised credit resources by 2.1 times and the volume of credit lines set by foreign partner banks by 1.5 times.

Along with servicing legal entities, the Bank developed retail activities offering individuals more than 250 types of services.

The Bank secured its leading positions in plastic cards issue, expanded its range of services to plastic card holders, from possibilities to pay for utilities, mobile communication, home phone lines to repaying loans, instant money transfers between card holders, currency purchase in ATMs, express-lending to individuals.

The Bank introduces services of plastic card payment for utilities and other services, goods and services sold via the Internet, receiving payments for protection of houses through virtual payment and information terminal at the Bank's web-site.

The Bank's customers got a possibility to make instant international money transfers to more than 170 countries of the world through MoneyGram payment system. The Bank was awarded with MoneyGram certificate "For excellent operational service". It also implemented a new instant money transfer system "BLIZKO".

Performance results of JSC "BPS-Bank" were highly appraised through the award from the competent English edition "The Banker" – Bank of the Year 2007 in Belarus. This award is viewed as on of the most prestigious in banking industry and is the best evidence of the Bank's position as one of the leaders in the Belarusian financial market.