UkrSibbank BNP Paribas Group relocated its branch designed for servicing foreign clients to a convenient location in the heart of the capital on Sept. 20.
The branch, which has been operating since 2009, has 2,000 active clients to service, according to the bank.
It is now located on 20 Gorky Street, a short walking distance from Lva Tolstoho metro station and Shevchenko Park. UkrSibbank spokesman Oleksandr Shevchenko says that the branch’s staff speaks English and French and specializes in the handling of international banking.
Shevchenko said the specialized branch is one of a kind in Ukraine, a statement that Robert Kossmann, deputy chair of the board at Raiffeisen Bank Aval, backed.
“Every foreign bank here… has VIP branches for their most important customers, big corporate, high-salary customers, but no branches specific to foreigners,” Kossmann said. Those branches do have English-speaking employees and provide a high level of customer service, he added. “But there just aren’t enough foreigners here now (for special non-resident-only branches). Maybe in 2005 or 2006, when there were tons of foreigners. But there are significantly fewer now.”
Philippe Joannier, UkrSibbank’s chairman of the management board for Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post that the real difference between banking at this branch as opposed to another UkrSibbank branch, or one from another bank for that matter, is the mentality of its staff and the culture of service one can expect here, which he said was of “European quality.”
“Our bankers at this branch know foreign exchange rates, they are experts in currency services and international transactions,” he said. “Westerners are used to a certain level of service.”
UkrSibbank was founded in 1990. France’s BNP Paribas S.A. as of early July 2013 owned just under 85 percent of the bank share capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Britain) the remaining 15 percent. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, on April 1, in terms of total assets UkrSibbank ranked 13th among the 175 banks operating in the country with Hr 25.875 billion.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected].
