'METCOMBANK has always relied heavily on private investors’ money; our natural person deposit portfolio reached 4.9 billion RUR in 2007, which is 54.8% better than a year earlier. I thin this increase signifies people’s growing trust: after all, we’ve been inspected for compliance with the state deposit insurance system successfully,’ the bank’s Chairman Rustam Mamatov says.

'Besides, we’ve built up on our capital as well through a 1.5-billion-ruble additional share issue, which means we can now offer more loans,’ he notes.

'The global liquidity crisis that made it more difficult to borrow on the open markets has proved that our strategy of using private investors’ deposits was quite effective,’ Mr. Mamatov observes.