OREANDA-NEWS. April 10, 2008. The Bank of New York's delegation headed by Mr. Sergey Kotov, Managing Director, visited Sberbank's Head Office to present Sberbank with the Award for Outstanding Payment Formatting and Overall Technical Performance, in recognition of the high quality of payments routed by Sberbank via its correspondent account with The Bank of New York during 2007, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

It was emphasised at the award ceremony that with almost 99% of straight-through processed payments, Sberbank stood the absolute leader among all Russian and many foreign banks that maintain accounts with The Bank of New York. The Bank of New York's representatives noted that such results were unique - particularly given the total volume of payments processed by the leader of the Russian banking sector, and the high percentage of commercial payments routed via The Bank of New York.

In answer to congratulations from his American colleagues, Mr. Alexander Zakharov, Sberbank's Deputy Chairman of the Board, said that the Award was a valuable acknowledgment of professionalism of Sberbank's staff. In the preceding years, The Bank of New York (which is Sberbank's major correspondent bank for US Dollar payments) repeatedly singled out Sberbank for excellence in STP payments and handling direct customer inquiries. These awards are a testimony to Sberbank's success in payment operations and its unfailing attention to the customer needs.