OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 January 2009 was announced, that Webscan Technologies, the leading provider of the Internet system monitoring services, released its list of the Top-100 banks mentioned the most often in the Russian online-media in 2008.

The study performed on the basis of the Webscan N&P operative monitoring system showed that the main competitors of the major Russian retail banks for the Russian public interest were the investment banks and financial institutions that were affected by the crisis.

2008 rating of the banks citations frequency

1. VTB (Russia)

2. Sberbank (Russia)

3. Deutsche Bank

4. Gazprombank (Russia)

5. Alfa Bank (Russia)

6. Bank of Moscow (Russia)

7. Morgan Stanley (USA)

8. Rosbank (Russia)

9. Promsvyzbank (Russia)

10. Raiffeisenbank (Austria)

"The crisis has been heating up public interest in the banking sector news. The way that PR services of the banks take avail of the situation can be observed online while the TOP-100 gives food for thought only. This year demonstrated quite convincingly that the citations’ quality is much more important than the number of such citations. I would think that the newsmakers, such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. or Merril Lynch, would have preferred to stay out of this rating altogether", - comments Vladimir Serov, Webscan Technologies Director General.

The Top-100 basis is formed by the major Russian retail banks whose press services have always been actively interacting with the Russia public (Alfa Bank – the 5th, Bank of Moscow – the 6th, Rosbank – the 8th, etc.). The VTB Group and Sberbank are the traditional leaders. These financial institutions are invariably among the Top-100 of the most mentioned Runet brands annually monitored by Webscan Technologies. Current economic situation only served to strengthen these banks’ positions of the leading newsmakers.

Presence in the rating of the major international banks that were the first victims of the crisis could be expected. Comprehensive coverage of the financial crisis by the Russian mass media actually commenced with the announcement of the problems experienced by Morgan Stanley (7), Merril Lynch (16) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (40). The exception is Deutsche Bank (3rd place) that despite a series of the scandals maintains its reputation of the opinion leader and the leading investment banking expert among the most relevant subjects covered by the Russian mass media.

Full rating of the most mentioned banks is available at the Webscan Technologies website.

The Top-100 most mentioned banks list is compiled on the basis of the data obtained by the Webscan N&P operative monitoring system during the period of January 1 – November 30 2008. Citations of 960 banks from 60 countries were monitored on 3,700 Russian news and information Internet-resources.