The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development topped the cardholders’ rating coordinated by Creditcard.ru. Based on the results of an online survey, the bank was believed to be the most active organization on the bank card market last year and crowned the Top 20 Banks ranking that features both provincial and federal businesses.

This ‘people’s rating’ is an independent assessment of banks given by their customers on a scale of zero to ten. The evaluation was converted in the so-called trust index the customers have for a particular bank card. As far as the latest rating was concerned, the overwhelming majority of votes (1,791) supported the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, whose cards scored 13,876 points and had the trust index of 8.28.

The rating covered 140 banks, with those getting the trust index of more than 7.5 presented on the Top 20 list. Only two Sverdlovsk Region-based banks actually made it to this list. Remarkably, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development got almost the same number of votes as last year. In 2007, the number of cards issued by the bank reached 401,416, the number of ATMs rose to 203, and the number of cash terminals came to 80. Besides, the bank keeps expanding the range of services available through cards, the latest new offer being the option of topping up one’s bank deposit through an ATM.

'Our prospects in the field of bank cards look good as usual. We are hoping to raise the number of cards to 550,000, the number of ATMs to 300, and the number of cash terminals to 100. What is more, we’ll keep building up on the quality of services as well,’ the bank’s Bank Card Technologies Director Yulia Vasina said to UrBC.