On the 18th of June the yearly meeting of Bank Center-invest’s shareholders took place. The shareholders’ meeting made the following decision concerning dividend payment for 2004: on ordinary shares at the rate of 14% to nominal value and on preferred shares at the rate of 20% to nominal value. The total amount of payments will be RUR 71,369,550.

The following persons were elected the members of the Board of Directors of Bank Center-invest:

• V. Vysokov – Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Center-invest, Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, Doctor in Economics, Professor, Academician of the International Academy of Ecology and Environment;

• V. Zolotarev – Chairman of the appointment and Remuneration committee, President of Rostov State University of Economics, Doctor in Economics, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Social Sciences Academy and Commercial Sciences Academy;

• Tatiana N. Vysokova – Chairman of the Auditing and Compliance Committee, Ph. D. (Economics);

• Georgi N. Orlov – Senior Banker of the Financial Institutions Department of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development;

• Ernst Welteke – ex-president of Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany);

• Alexander V. Losev – Executive director of OJSC “Volga-Don Shipping company”.

• Ferdinand Z. Khachaturyan – Deputy of Legislative Assembly of Rostov region, Managing Director of CJSC “Rostovgazoapparat”, Corresponding Member of the Russian academy on Quality Matters, Ph. D. (Engineering sciences).

• Independent director – Ernst Welteke, ex-president of Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany), was elected the member of the Board of Directors of Bank Center-invest. Independent director guarantees the transparency of bank activity and provides taking independent decisions.

During the meeting of the Board of Directors of Bank Center-invest professor V. Vysokov, Doctor in Economics, was elected the Chairman of the Board of Directors; the following Board of Directors Committees were formed:

• Strategic Planning Committee (the Chairman is V. Vysokov);
• Auditing and Compliance Committee (the Chairman is T. Vysokova);
• Appointment and Remuneration Committee (the Chairman is V. Zolotarev).

The Chairman of the Board of Bank Center-invest A. Shtabnova noted in her report concerning the results of Bank’s activity for 2004 that in Russian market Bank Center-invest is stable in taking high rating positions among leading banks of the country.

Bank Center-invest’s capital increased by 58.5% and exceeded RUR 1 billion. International finance organizations appeared in the structure of the capital. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) became a new shareholder of the Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) granted a new subordinated loan to the Bank.

The Bank took the 89th position by profit among Russian banks, 23rd position by net-assets aggregate among Russian regional banks, 36th position by the volume of plastic cards issue, 49th position by personal deposits, 97th position by net-assets aggregate, 119th position by shareholder’s equity. Bank center-invest became the first Russian bank to enter the TOP-100 of the largest Russian banks by net-assets aggregate (http://rating.rbc.ru). For the 9th time running the Bank has been successfully audited by the company PricewaterhouseCoopers in accordance with the international standards. The results of auditing control were received right before the meeting and they confirmed the growth dynamic of the Bank in 2004.

In the market of local banks of Rostov region the share of Bank Center-invest exceeded 40% by all major economic indicators. New quality of growth in 2004 was connected with the increase of the Bank’s profitability level and wide attraction of personal assets (the volume of deposits exceeded RUR 3 billion). Bank center-invest joined the state deposit insurance system. During the last year Bank’s assets grew 1.6 times, credit portfolio – 1.7 times while the volume of profits doubled and exceeded RUR 200 mln. The return on assets (ROAA) of Bank Center-invest has grown up to 3.5% (3.2% in 2003), the return on shareholders’ equity (ROAE) made up 27.7% (19.9% in 2003).

In 2004 Bank Center-invest continued realization of the strategy of granting banking services on the basis of international standards and modern banking technologies to the customers of the South of Russia. Successful experience of business doubling of Bank Center-invest allowed offering a new program “Doubling with Bank Center-invest” to the customers of the Bank. This program includes:Doubling of business of the customer enterprises on the basis of modern banking technologies.

• Doubling of knowledge. Bank Center-invest holds seminars and consultations for its customers.
• Doubling of scales. The Bank supports customers’ business on the basis of branch network development.
• Doubling of benefit. As a result the customers of Bank Center-invest, foreign partners of the bank and their customers (who found new reliable partners in the South of Russia due to Center-invest bank) benefit from international cooperation.
• Doubling of living standards. People of the South of Russia have free access to a wide range of products and services: deposits, loans, currency exchange, Western Union money transfers, international plastic cards of MasterCard and VISA payment systems, the network of ATMs and cash terminals.

In 2004 EBRD, USAID, IFC, export and credit agency HERMES, German Credit Institution for Economic Restoration KfW, Italian State Corporation SIMEST, largest banks of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy opened credit and guarantee lines to the total amount of over USD 70 mln. The most part of attracted foreign resources was directed to the crediting of SMEs, retail lending and crediting of investment projects of the enterprises of the South of Russia.

The agency RusRating awarded to Bank Center-invest high credit rating “BB-“, which reflects stable financial position of the Bank, its strong position in the region, solid structure of the share capital and also successes in the sphere of international cooperation.

In 2004 nine new branches of the Bank started and in particular: branch in Volgograd city, additional offices “Orbita”, “Severniy”, credit and cash office in supermarket “Metro Cash&Carry” in Rostov-on-Don and also in microdistrict “Temernik”: additional offices in the city of Morozovsk, Volgodonsk (“New City”), in stanitsa Egorlikskaya, village Pokrovskoe. Additional offices in microdistrict “Selmash” (Rostov-on-Don), in Kropotkin city (started in the first quarter of 2005) and in Timashevsk city in Krasnodar region are about to start. 9 additional offices of the Bank in Rostov-on-Don and a branch in Stavropol city are planned to start in 2005.

In 2004 new products and services were offered to the Bank’s customers: technologies of corporate customers crediting, lending to agribusiness and SMEs were extended and developed. A new operational hall for servicing legal entities (the largest one in the South of Russia, the total space of 2100 square meters) was opened. New retail lending programs were introduced. They include: loans for share freeholding in the houses; loans for completion of building of the houses; medium-term loans for individuals.

According to the results of 2004 Bank Center-invest granted more than 33% of all the loans to SMEs of Rostov region. In 2004 the Bank granted more than 3300 loans to the amount of RUR 6.1 billion to SMEs.

8000 SMEs and 3000 individual entrepreneurs have already become the customers of Bank Center-invest. By the end of the year Bank Center-invest plans to increase the number of customers (both SMEs and individual entrepreneurs) up to 15 thousand and the volume of crediting up to RUR 8 billion.