Belarusbank

From 1922 to 1987 the country applied the system of state labor savings banks of USSR. In 1987 Belarusian Republican Bank of the Savings Bank of USSR was established, and four years later, in 1991, it was transformed into Belarusian Savings Bank. In 1995 Joint-Stock Savings Bank Belarusbank was established by Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus following a merger between Belarusian Savings Bank and Commercial Bank Belarusbank.

In 1996 Belarusbank acquired sectoral banks Belsviazbank and Belzheldorbank. The Client-Bank system was introduced. In the same year the bank became a principal member of Europay International. A year later representative offices in Warsaw, Poland and Moscow, Russia were established.[2]

In 2000 the Bank became a principal member of VISA International.[3]

In 2003 Belarusbank established a representative office in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

In 2005 MinskComplexBank merged into Belarusbank.

In June 2007 Belarusbank became the first Belarusian bank to open a representative office in Beijing. A year later foreign exchange transactions in the currency of the People's Bank of China were introduced.

September 2010 saw the signing of the first three-party Framework Agreement with a French and a Belgian bank in the history of the banking system. Cooperation with banks from more than 30 countries was established, Germany, Switzerland, China, Poland and Turkey being among the leaders. In December the largest syndicated loan in the history of the Belarusian banking system for USD 145 million was attracted. In the same period the bank surpassed the 4 million threshold in payment card emission (as of January 1, 2010 there were 4.9 mln cards in circulation).

In May 2012 Belarusbank became an official member of World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI), one of the largest banking associations that promotes interests of savings banks and retail banking institutions in the world. In the same year Belarusbank became partner bank of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Interbank Consortium. At the same time Belarusbank became the first Belarusian bank to obtain a certificate for acquiring contactless cards in the Republic of Belarus (Visa payWave).

On August 16, 2013 an agreement on founding of BELCARD, CJSC, was signed. Banks Processing Center, JSC, Belarusbank, Belagroprombank, JSC and Belinvestbank, JSC acted as its founders.

In 2015 Belarusbank attracted a record size syndicated loan in the history of the Belarusian banking business in the amount of EUR 203 million.

In 2016 Belarusbank closed its representative office in Poland,[4] and in 2018 it closed the one in Moscow.[5]

Controlling block of the bank's shares is owned by the Republic of Belarus. Majority stake of Belarusbank belongs to the State Property Committee of the Republic of Belarus: 98.76% are owned directly and 1.19% are owned indirectly (by regional authorities). Individuals own 0.0152% of shares.[6]

Supervisory Board

The Supervisory Board headed by Alexander Turchin (as of October 2018) performs the coordinating function in the bank.

Chairmen of the Board

• Vladimir Khilko (1993 – 1995)
• Tamara Vinnikova (1995 – 1996)
• Nadezhda Yermakova (1996 – 2011)
• Sergey Pisaryk (2011 – 2016)
• Viktar Ananich (since 2017)[7]

Belarusbank is a full-service bank that works with both individuals and entities and also provides investment and banking services. As of August 2018, the bank served more than 80 thousand entities and individual entrepreneurs. Major customers include Belarusian Oil Company, CJSC, Gazprom Transgaz Belarus, JSC, Eurotorg, LLC.[8]

Belarusbank holds the first place among top 10 largest Belarusian banks by the size of branch network.[9] As of 2018 the bank's branch network included:[10]

• 6 branches – regional (Minsk) divisions
• 21 branches
• 103 banking services centers
• 1433 banking outlets
• 138 exchange offices

The bank is represented abroad by its representative offices in Beijing and Frankfurt am Main.[11]

Banking holding includes:[12]

• ASB Leasing, LLC (99.99%)
• Unitary Enterprise “ASB Recreation Center Sputnik” (100%)
• Unitary Enterprise “ASB Recreation Center Solnechny” (100%)
• ASB Consult, LLC (60%)
• Unitary Enterprise “ASB Broker“ (founded by ASB Leasing, LLC).

Performance indicators

As of 2018 Belarusbank held the first place in the Belarusian banking system by volume of assets (BYN 27.03 billion). The Bank's income in 2017 amounted to BYN 172 mln and increased by BYN 17 mln or by 11% as compared to the similar period of the previous year. Operating profitability reached 6.7%. The ratio between operating costs and net operating income from core activity (CIR) in 2017 made up 42.4% and is the lowest among the top 10 banks of the Republic of Belarus.

Funding base of the Bank in 2017 decreased by 1.5% and as of 01.01.2018 comprised BYN 28,658 mln. Loan portfolio of the Bank as of the reporting date amounted to BYN 17,862 mln and comprised 62.3% in the Bank's asset structure.[7]

Belarusbank's share in the total volume of assets of Belarusian banking sector as of January 1, 2016 accounted for 41.2%, in the retail deposit market it reached 45%, loan portfolio amounted to 72% of all outstanding loans to the population.

The volume of credit resources attracted by Belarusbank from foreign banks and financial companies amounts to USD 1.8 billion in equivalent. The volume of corporate customer deposits amounts to BYN 79 trillion (EUR 3.89 billion in equivalent). The volume of funds attracted from individuals reached BYN 95 trillion (EUR 4.68 billion in equivalent).

Belarusbank occupies the 420th place in the world. According to the annual rating of the world's Top 1000 banks published by the international specialized financial magazine The Banker (publishing company of Financial Times), at year-end 2015 Belarusbank occupied the 10th place among the 25 largest banks of the Central and Eastern Europe by Tier 1 capital.

Fitch Ratings (2018):

• short term in foreign currency B
• long term in foreign currency B
• long term forecast: Stable
• support rating: 4

Standard & Poor's (April 2018):

• long term in foreign currency В
• long term in national currency B
• forecast: Stable[13]

On July 5 Belarusbank together with Samsung Electronics and Mastercard international payment system introduced an opportunity to pay for purchases using the Samsung Pay service for its customers. The service is available to holders of personal Mastercard debit cards of Belarusbank. It is provided free of charge, Internet access is not required to perform a payment, payments with the use of the Samsung Pay service are quicker as compared to ordinary cards.[14]

On March 1 Belarusbank introduced a mobile payment service Belarusbank Pay for its customers, which allows holders of Mastercard or Maestro payment cards to perform contactless payments using their mobile phones. The project is carried out in cooperation with the Mastercard payment system.

The BELARUSBANK Pay service developed on the basis of the HCE (Host Card Emulation) technology allows issuing a virtual analogue of a payment card free of charge with the use of a mobile phone (supported by the NFC (Near Field Сommunication) technology and Android operating system, version 4.4 or above) and a mobile application to make payments with one touch of a mobile phone to a contactless mobile terminal at merchants.[15]

In February 2018 Belarusbank became the first bank in the country to open a mortgage office. It offers customers a set of services referring to receiving real property loans, both for construction and purchase of new residential property, and to buy residential property at the secondary market. The office issues residential loans and provides services required for transaction settlement: selection of accommodations, performance of purchase or execution of a co-investment agreement with a property developer, selection of a mortgage loan and real estate title registration.[16]

Belarusbank poses itself as a socially responsible brand. The bank performs charity work within five projects:

• "Paternal home": construction of housing for families that bring up orphans and children left without parental care, provision of assistance to families living there
• "Vector of kindness": the bank provides assistance to health care institutions, social safety organizations, non-governmental organizations, distressed citizens
• "Bridge to the future": provision of assistance to educational institution, elimination of illiteracy, support of child development
• "Let's win together!": support of the sport of records, physical education and healthy lifestyle
• "Space for inspiration": support of culture and arts institutions[17]

2006, 2010, 2013 – Belarusbank received the Bank of the Year award in Belarus by The Banker economic magazine.

2008-2015 – Belarusbank was pronounced the winner in the Bank No. 1 in Belarus nomination by the committee of international contest Choice of the Year.

2009 – Belarusbank was named the world's best bank in terms of customer satisfaction in the Western Union system.

2009, 2010, 2013, 2015 – Belarusbank was named the Best Bank of the Republic of Belarus by the world-famous financial magazine Global Finance.

2009-2012, 2015 – while choosing the best commercial and investment banks in Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries, EMEA finance financial magazine named Belarusbank the best bank in the following nominations: Best Bank of the Republic of Belarus, Best Investment Bank, Best Broker.

At year-end 2010 established international economic media, such as Euromoney and Business New Europe, named Belarusbank republic's best bank.

Belarusbank won a number of awards for high quality of international wire transfers performance:

• 2012 – Standard Chartered Bank certificate (for high quality execution of payment orders for international wire transfers in the SWIFT format); Deutsche Bank AG (Germany) certificate Deutsche Bank’s Straight-Through Processing (STP) Excellence Award (for wire transfers in US dollars);
• 2013 – Standard Chartered Bank (New York, USA) award USD Clearing Certificate of Achievement (for wire transfers as a whole), and Commerzbank AG (Germany) award STP Award’2013 (for high quality of payment arrangement via Nostro accounts);
• 2014 – Quality Award Raiffeisen Bank International AG (Austria) award Straight Through Processing (STP) (for transfers in Euro), and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, New York award (for transfers in US dollars).

In 2011 Trade Finance international magazine named the project for financing of an agreement between Belarusian Railways and Stadler Bussnang AG (Switzerland) as Project of the Year 2010 in Belarus.

2012-2013 – VISA International awarded Belarusbank for good service in the Fewest Fraudulent Transactions nomination.

2014-2015 – Belarusbank was awarded by Commerzbank AG for cooperation with foreign financial institutions in the sphere of foreign trade financing; the Cbonds agency named it the best Belarusian investment bank.

At year-end 2014 it earned a special award The Most Responsive Bank 2014 within the Peoples Rating nomination from the prestigious financial and analytical portal Infobank.by.

2015 – Belarusbank was awarded by BACEE (Banking Association for Central and Eastern Europe) for development of international banking cooperation.

• Sberkassa
• Banking in Belarus