OREANDA-NEWS. January 18, 2010. The influential financial monthly magazine, The Banker, a Financial Times Group publication, has announced MDM Bank the winner of their 2009 Bank of the Year in Russia award. This was the tenth time the annual award was conferred. The winning bank is selected based on the overall performance of the financial institution and the opinion of leading financial analysts from the world’s financial markets.

The Banker magazine’s Bank of the Year Award is one of the most prestigious in the financial industry, and is conferred according to region, country and category. In The Banker’s editorial commentary published yesterday, it is remarked that analysts have spoken for years about the long overdue need for consolidation in the Russian banking system, fragmented among at least 1100 banks.

MDM Bank and URSA Bank, however, went beyond words, sealing the largest merger transaction in the history of the Russian banking sector in August 2009.

Bringing together MDM’s corporate focus and URSA’s retail business, the new entity may become the country’s largest privately-owned bank. The magazine also noted that the Bank has set high corporate governance standards, with independent directors and foreign investors comprising a majority of the board of directors.