OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2010. Uniastrum Bank walked away with top prize in the SME Credit Bank nomination in the “Potential and Prospects” category at Moscow’s President Hotel, the venue for this year’s Financial Olympus National Prize awards ceremony, reported the press-centre of Uniastrum Bank.

The Financial Olympus Prize is awarded to the best companies and individuals working in the Russian financial sector. It is one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious business awards, helping to promote greater transparency throughout the market and to sharpen the investment appeal of Russia’s financial institutions. The nominees are selected on the basis of the National Finance Rating and the winners determined by votes cast by the Expert Council. This year’s awards were in recognition of 2009 results, with over twenty nomination categories for banks, management, insurance, and investment companies, as well as private pension funds. Diploma awards were presented to individuals for outstanding achievement in the financial sector. Attending this year’s Financial Olympus were more than 300 guests, including leading lights from Russia’s financial community, representatives of central government departments, analysts, academics, politicians, and public figures.

For Uniastrum Bank, lending to small and midsized businesses has always been a priority business line, ranking sixth among the nation’s biggest SME lenders by portfolio size and the overall volume of credit issued, according to figures released by RosBusinessConsulting. In 2009 Uniastrum issued Rb 26.5 bn in loans to small and midsized businesses, taking its SME portfolio to Rb 31.8 bn. Meantime, the Bank’s small business portfolio tipped the scales at over Rb 4.6 bn, more than double the year-earlier result (RBC). In Q110 the Bank’s SME loan portfolio expanded 20% to Rb 5.5 bn as of April 1, 2010.

“We are grateful to the prize organizers for valuing our SME operations so highly,” says Acting Chairman of Uniastrum’s Management Board, Oleg Shvetsov. “In 2010 the Bank is continuing to improve the terms offered to small and medium-sized business owners, focusing primarily on broadening our product range, making credit conditions even more customer-friendly, and cutting loan approval times.”