OREANDA-NEWS. April 30, 2010. Following a decision taken by the Organizing Committee of the annual All-Russia Best Banker of Russia Competition, Mr. Zakaryan has been awarded the honorary title of “Russia’s Best Banker of 2009”

Spanning the country’s entire banking community, the Best Banker of Russia competition was organized in 2005 by the Expert Advisory Board reporting to the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Association of Russian Banks, the Association of Regional Banks of Russia, the Federal Treasury, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, SC Deposit Insurance Agency, the Russian Government Academy of Finance, and the Financial Control Publishing House. The competition’s main objective is to find the best head of a Russian credit institution based on its prior-year results. A special committee evaluates the organizational skills of the contenders, the reliability, stability, and business agility of the banks they head, as well as assessing customer service standards, branch network rollout, community relations programs, and client confidence levels.

On the strength of its performance in 2009, Uniastrum is today one of the country’s Top-30 systemically important banks, as ranked by CBR, a Top-20 player in terms of its ramified branch network, is Russia’s 48th biggest bank by asset volume, places 36th by loan portfolio size, 21st by total retail deposits, 8th by auto loans, and 6th by the amount of credit disbursed to small and midsized businesses, based on figures released by RosBusinessConsulting news agency.

In 2009 Uniastrum’s total assets climbed 56% to around Rb 140 bn. Last year the lender’s corporate credit portfolio expanded a healthy 60%, while total loans issued to small business more than doubled.

For the record, this is the third time the Uniastrum President has been named Russia’s Best Banker. Accepting the award from ARB President Garegin Tosunyan, Gagik Zakaryan said that it was “a testimonial not just to Uniastrum Bank’s top managers, but also to our thousands of employees. Our thanks to our partners and clients for the confidence they continue to place in us, and we hope that our future banking relationship will prove to be even more rewarding.”