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“We are extremely pleased to receive this international recognition for the quality of our work. I am especially proud of Group Leaders Mariya Naturina and Konstantin Lezhnin whose professional contributions made it possible. We also would like to acknowledge the support of Deputy CEO Oleg Tumanov.” — added Mr. Halperin.

Peter Smida, CEO of Alfa-Bank said, “Developing and expanding our consumer credit product range Alfa-Bank is proud to have the best risk management group in emerging markets. Operational Risk Management is one of the most important parts in operation of the Bank.”

Ellen Leander, Editor of Operational Risk Magazine, analysed the judges’ decision. “Alfa-Bank’s accomplishments in 2003 were substantial… The bank plans to conform to the practices outlined in the standardised approach under Basel II, even though the country’s financial regulators are not requiring Basel II conformity at the moment. In 2003, the firm put in place a loss data collection exercise, and the firm hopes to implement a model within two years. Too, the firm has implemented a scenario-based quantitative self-assessment programme, and calculates KRIs for a number of business areas.” In short, the judges felt that “Alfa-Bank had made tremendous progress and overcome some challenging obstacles to put in place an op risk programme that many banks in the US and Europe could aspire to.”

Alfa-Bank’s Risk Management Division was founded in 1999 and established the first modern risk management practice in Russia comprising Credit Risk, Credit Methodologies, Market Risk, and Operational Risk Management.

Mr. Halperin and Mr. Lezhnin also spoke at the “OpRisk Europe 2004” conference on the topic “Implementing Operational Risk Management in a non-Basle country: the Case of Russia” in London, March 17, 2004.