News

Global Finance has announced the First Round winners in the “World’s Best Internet Banks” competition in Central & Eastern Europe. This is the 9th year Global Finance has named the World’s Best Internet Banks. Details on all First Round winners will be published in the September issue. First Round winners include Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Banks and Best Consumer Internet Banks at the country level. The Regional and Global winners for these categories will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in New York City in November and published in the December issue of Global Finance. Also announced were Regional winners in Sub-Categories. Global winners in the Sub-Categories will also be announced at the Awards Ceremony and in the December issue. The list of First Round winners follows. Winners were chosen among entries evaluated by a world-class judging panel. Global Finance editors were responsible for the final selection of winners in the First Round.

Only banks that entered the competition were considered for awards, and awards were only given in those regions, countries and categories in which there were entries.

Winning banks were selected based on the following criteria: strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of online customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from Internet initiatives, and web site design and functionality. Category winners, such as “best online cash management” were selected based on the relative strength and success of those web products and services.

Alfa-Bank took part in this competition and worn the “World’s Best Internet Banks” Award in Russia.

“Over 300 thousand new customers of Alfa-Bank have already appreciated the quality and convenience of obtaining services through the Internet. It is a satisfaction to know that the high-level service rendered by Alfa-Click Internet Bank has been acknowledged by the authoritative international Global Finance award. The development of electronic services has always been one of the most important priorities for Alfa-Bank, and the award given at the level of Central and Eastern Europe makes it possible to say that remote service banking in Russia is now coming up to a more qualitative level, competing equally throughout Europ,” says Vladimir Urbansky, Head of Sales Services Channels Department Alfa-Bank.

“In less than a decade, the Internet has transformed the way many consumers and most businesses bank,” says Joseph  D. Giarraputo, publisher of Global Finance. “The continuing improvements in Internet offerings represented by this year’s entries show that more significant Internet banking developments are still ahead of us.”

See following for full listing of the World’s Best Internet Banks First Round winners for 2008 in Central & Eastern Europe.

Country Winners:

Best Consumer Internet Banks:

Estonia — Hansabank Estonia
Hungary — Citi
Lithuania — SEB Vilniaus Bankas
Poland — Bank Millennium SA
Romania — Raiffeisen Bank
Russia — Alfa-Bank
Slovakia — Tatra Banka

Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Banks:

Bulgaria — Citi
Croatia — Raiffeisenbank Austria dd Zagreb
Czech Republic — Citi
Hercegovina — Raiffeisen Bank dd Bosna I Hercegovina
Hungary — Citi
Poland — Citi
Romania — Citi
Slovakia — Citi
Ukraine — Citi

Regional Sub-Category Winners:

Best Consumer Internet Banks:

Best Bill Payment & Presentment — Alfa-Bank
Best Online Consumer Credit — Citi
Best Website Design — Hansabank Estonia
Best Integrated Consumer Bank Site — Hansabank Estonia
Best Information Security — SEB Vilniaus Banks
Best Deposit Acquisition — Citi

Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Banks:

Best Online Cash Management — Citi
Best Trade Finance — HSBC

Regional Winners — not part of the world’s 50 largest financial institutions:

Corporate — RZB
Consumer — Hansabank Estonia