BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
31/03/2008
Forbis Helps Belgazprombank to Implement Bank's Plans
In March 2008, the Forbis Company and a joint Belarusian and Russian bank Belgazprombank have signed a set of Agreements on BIS FORPOST purchasing and implementation
OJSC Belgazprombank was established in 1990. At the moment Belgazprombank takes the 7th place in terms of assets and the 8th place according to its owned capital amount among the banks of the Republic of Belarus. Since March 2005, the Fitch rating agency has granted Belgazprombank an international rating in the system of Belarusian banks. In October 2007, the agency increased the bank's long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) from level ‚- to level ‚. Today, it is the highest rating granted by the agency to Belarusian banks.
In March 2008, during stockholders meeting, there was announced an increase of the authorized capital of Belgazprombank by 150 million USD. Additional emission is stipulated to be performed in two stages: the first 75 million dollars will be delivered to Belgazprombank in April 2008; the second half of funds will be delivered in summer 2009. After augmentation of the authorized capital by 75 million USD this year, the shares will be allotted as follows: Gazprom and Gazprombank will control 48.1% each; the remaining 3.8% will belong to the enterprises under control of the Government of the Belarus Republic. As a result of this emission, Belgazprombank will take the third place in the Belarusian banking system according to the amount of the authorized capital.
At the moment, the bank provides services to more than 8.5 thousand corporations and about 200 thousand individuals. The regional network of the bank embraces 8 branches and 60 remote points of banking service in all the regions of the Republic of Belarus. The bank has a wide network of agencies, which includes more than 2000 points providing retail banking services.
OJSC Belgazprombank maintains long-term co-operation with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and International Finance Corporation, and is the country's leader providing financial support to small and medium business.
OJSC Belgazprombank plays an important role in performing settlements for natural gas, supplied to the republic, and for the gas, conveyed as transit from Russia through Europe. Since 2003, servicing of the entire finance business of OJSC Gazprom in the Republic of Belarus is performed via OJSC Belgazprombank.
Among the main strategic principles, Belgazprombank, often referred to as a Financial Bridge between Belarus and Russia, distinguishes the increase in the scale of active bank operations due to the significant augmentation of the owned capital and the bank's resources, as well as the priority of tasks, related to servicing OJSC Gazprom. While fulfilling its mission, Belgazprombank strives to satisfy financial needs of the entities of the Belarus Republic to the utmost by providing customer-oriented banking products and services based on advanced technologies. Thus, it is clear why the bank has purchased an automated banking system of the European level, just right what BIS FORPOST is.
In the nearest future, the bank intends to intensively develop the network of additional offices and to strengthen its positions in all the spheres of its activity. Besides, development of all the range of the provided services will be given a full-scale impulse. The bank is positive to the subject of the agreement signed with the Forbis Company, and believes it will allow to implement the scope with due efficiency, and as a result will enable further increase of indicators in all directions of the activity.
Andrej Zujev CEO of the Forbis Company has emphasized that each new customer is a challenge for the company, and commented on the concluded agreement: "We are happy to gain one more customer in the Belarusian market, which is, by all means, perspective and has huge potential. Yet, the fact that BIS FORPOST has been adapted to the Belarusian market in such a short time, proves undoubted flexibility and versatility of the system itself."
It is the second Agreement of the Forbis Company concluded with a Belarusian bank. The first bank in Belarus to implement BIS FORPOST was Minsk Transit Bank. Currently, besides the mentioned Belarusian banks, BIS FORPOST successfully operates in Lithuanian, Latvian, and Russian banks. The Forbis Company is constantly improving its created products, striving to make modern banking more attractive to customers.
Source:
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