OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2009. Alfa-Bank was named Russian Private Bank of the year at the first SPEAR’S Russia Wealth Management Awards ceremony. The bank was recognized for its excellence in private banking and wealth management, reported the press-centre of Alfa-Bank.

The jury praised the Bank’s А-Club, an elite banking service, whose members receive a wide range of unique products on private asset management, and financial services provided by a personal manager on a 24-hour basis. There are currently three A-Club offices in Moscow, one in Saint-Petersburg, Samara, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg.

Alfa-Bank’s main competitors were Gazprombank and URALSIB.

In addition, the Aeroflot-MasterCard-Alfa-Bank co-brand was awarded the Bank Card of the Year Award, beating strong international brands such as American Express Centurion and Visa Infinite.

Alexei Marey, head of retail business at Alfa-Bank, said, "We are proud to have won these awards while competing with large international companies. This award is further acknowledgement that the А-Club format is at the cutting edge of banking services. The independent experts’ opinion is another endorsement of our financial services in private banking, which are highly popular with customers".

The winners in other categories were Credit Suisse, HSBC Private Banking, Rietumu Banka and others.

The SPEAR’S Russia Wealth Management Awards 2009 awards ceremony was held on November 26, 2009.

SPEAR’S Russia Wealth Management Awards is Russia’s first Awards ceremony to celebrate the best representatives from private banking, wealth management and related industries. The Award was established by the British SPEAR’S Wealth Management Awards, which takes place annually and is held by SPEAR’S UK magazine in London.