OREANDA-NEWS. August 12, 2010. UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo declares plans to increase the market share of Ukrsotsbank, a part of the Group, reported the press-centre of Ukrsotsbank.

Alessandro Profumo said, "The crisis mostly affected such countries as Ukraine which had been growing quite a lot during the previous years but then most painfully suffered from the financial crisis and global economy slowdown. But despite that, Ukrsotsbank had been performing quite well within that period. In the course of all quarters and even months, its financial performance remained positive. So, I would say that in the way the things happened abroad or externally to us, we should be quite satisfied with the acquisition. We are convinced that this investment is of immense potential for development and growth. The Bank and its procedures were significantly restructured during the crisis. The business processes and procedures were optimized, costs reduced etc.

We think we are ready to profit from the forthcoming recovery. As you know, the main world economies are growing again; we have been witnessing quite a lot of positive signals for better business and consumer activity. So, we think we are well positioned to benefit, when the world economy growth is on the run.

Due to our assessment outcome, our market share has already been increasing. The key strategy element is to be perceived as a high quality service bank by our customers, so the customer satisfaction is, certainly, a key driver for us. We are quite strong in both retail and corporate sectors. We have a good branch network all over the country, and, surely, plan to continue organically grow on this basis.

In our opinion, the organic growth is the most reasonable market strategy now. As I know, this is not only our Bank’s position but also that of all banking community in Ukraine. We remember the times of fast growth, opening of hundreds branches etc. Now we see other processes dominating worldwide, such as recovery, rethinking, modification, cost optimizing etc. In such circumstances, the organic growth is the best recipe for the next three years.