OREANDA-NEWS. June 03, 2013. Herman Gref, CEO, Chairman of the Management Board, Sberbank of Russia, addressed the Annual General Shareholders' Meeting of Sberbank.

“Despite the slowdown in economic growth, Sberbank has demonstrated very good financial results in 2012,” reported Gref. “The Bank achieved a record in terms of assets and issued loans, operating income, and earned net profits. 2012 was the most successful year in the history of the Bank not only in terms of its financial results, but also in terms of quality changes and the transformation of Sberbank into an international financial group.”

Herman Gref singled out six major areas that Sberbank will focus on when preparing its new five-year development strategy – deepening relationships with customers, increasing the efficiency of expenses, developing new technologies, building a genuinely mature and international organization, streamlining, and developing human resources potential.

“From 2014, when we will start to implement this new strategy, the Bank will step into a new stage,” explained the head of Sberbank. “These will be five years, after which we shall either keep pace with or move ahead of today's leaders in key technology areas.”