Banks from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) dominate The Banker’s first analysis of the fastest growing banks in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) ‘transition countries’. These CIS banks occupy 44 of the Top 50 places in this unique analysis of banks from the former Soviet bloc. The term ‘transition’ is used to describe those countries from central Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union that are moving from rigid communist systems to more free-market, liberal economic systems.
The list is headed by Alliance Bank from Kazakhstan and also includes three other banks from Kazakhstan, eight from Belarus, 21 from Russia and five from the Ukraine. Of the 21 Russian banks only three, Promsvyazbank, MDM Financial Group and Nikoil IBG Bank, appeared in the Top 1000 World Banks listing in July – although a fourth, ZAO Raiffeisenbank Austria, appeared as a foreign-owned bank in the country listing only because its figures were consolidated into those of its parent, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich (RZB).
