denotes premium content | Sep 7 2010 
News
posted 27 Jul 2010
TFR Awards 2010
Best Trade Bank in Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS
Gold: UniCredit
Silver: GarantiBank International
Bronze: Commerzbank
2009 winner: RZB (CEE)/ING (Russia & CIS)
Eastern Europe was one of the regions hit hardest by the financial crisis. However, with the support of the EBRD and banks such as UniCredit, the lifeblood of trade was kept flowing, enabling a quick recovery in some sectors – such as metals – although many challenges still remain.
UniCredit’s emphatic win in this award reflects both its strength across the region and the positive role that it has played over the past year.
It is impossible to generalise over such a diverse region, but in Central Europe, trade volumes have not generally returned to pre-crisis levels. “We have quite a lot of import business, which was heavily driven by consumer consumption. However, consumer spending has been lower than expected,” says Andrew England, Head of Global Transaction Banking in Central and Eastern Europe for UniCredit.
Exports, however, have started to gain momentum, he adds. “Business is picking up, volumes are picking up and economic activities are picking up.”
Russia and the CIS is a different story. Russia, in particular, is growing strongly once again and trade, says England, “is definitely well over what it was last year”. Turkey is another bright spot due to strong trade with both Western Europe and into the Middle East.
Share of the vote:
UniCredit 41%
GarantiBank International 24%
Commerzbank 11%
Others 24%
