OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2013. For the second year in a row Global Trade Review (GTR) magazine has named Sberbank the best trade finance bank in CIS. GTR is the world's leading independent and the most reputable magazine in cross-border trade and trade finance business.

Sberbank is the only Russian bank that has received such a reputable award, with previous winners including HSBC, CitiBank, Commerzbank, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered

According to Andrey Ivanov, Global Head of Trade Finance and Correspondent Banking of Sberbank, the trade financing portfolio of the bank has increased from USD2 billion to USD 12.5 billion over the past three years. "The bank is doing everything possible to not only maintain its leading position in Russia and CIS, but also to enter the top 10 European banks by 2018 - the trade financing market leaders – by increasing the portfolio of its transactions to USD 30 billion", said Andrey Ivanov.

Currently, Sberbank offers a full range of trade financing and documentary business products, based on the best international standards. At the same time the products on offer are being diversified rapidly and the new trade financing business areas are developing. Already during this year the first financing transactions insured by the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR) and transactions in the field of aviation financing have been closed.

Through the development of an international network Sberbank is actively implementing intra-group transactions involving foreign subsidiaries of the banks of Sberbank Group in the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey. In 2013 a new product line - Commodity Trade Finance (CTF) and Supply Chain Finance – was launched based on a platform of Sberbank (Switzerland) AG covering the financing of export flows from the Russian Federation, including trade operations financing products after crossing the border.

Sberbank plans to build an effective cross-border platform in order to offer its customers the most flexible integrated solutions for trade flow servicing.

"Given the successfully implemented strategy of international expansion and the expected synergies from the geographical expansion of the Group in the coming years, Sberbank will definitely take a significant share of the international trade financing market", added Andrey Ivanov.