First Ukrainian International Bank, Public Joint-Stock Company

First Ukrainian International Bank - the first bank in Ukraine with the participation of foreign investors was created on November 20, 1991 in accordance with the Shareholders' Meeting decision. The Bank was registered with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on December 23, 1991, and at the beginning of 1992 it started to perform banking transactions.

The Bank is organized as a closed joint_stock company.
The Bank is registered in Donetsk. The Head Office functions are performed by the offices in Donetsk and Kyiv.
FUIB was the first Ukrainian bank to implement the operating system recognized by the world banking community - Midas software, product of Misys IBS Ltd. (Great Britain). It has been functioning in FUIB since 1995. Foreign currency payments are performed through S.W.I.F.T., Hryvnia payments - through the System of Electronic Payments of NBU. FUIB Card_Processing Center, based on technologies of Arkansas Systems Inc. (USA), is certified by international payment systems Visa International (Third Party Processor certification) and MasterCard Europe (Member Service Provider certification). FUIB cooperates with other Ukrainian banks in the field of payment card technologies: various partnership programs have been realized with 18 banks. Together with the equipment of counterparty banks, as at the end of 2002 FUIB Card - Processing Center serviced 304 ATMs and 787 POS_terminals. FUIB's clients also can receive informational and banking services through "Client-Bank", Internet Banking, GSM Banking and Tele Banking systems, through sensor bank terminals. In autumn 2002 FUIB opened the first "Electronic Bank" in Ukraine.

In 1992 FUIB became the first Ukrainian company to start preparing its financial statements in accordance with International Accounting Standards (since 2002 - International Financial Reporting Standards) and to have them audited by leading international audit companies. Since 1998 FUIB has been given ratings of international rating agencies. The following are the current ratings given to the Bank by Fitch Ratings Ltd. in January 2003: Individual - D, Support - 5T, Short - term - C , Long - term - CCC+, Outlook - Positive.

The current corporate client base of FUIB includes the leading enterprises of machine - building, metallurgy, chemistry, food industry and agricultural production processing, trade, transport, power and mining industry, agency and holding companies - 38 of 100 largest Ukrainian companies are FUIB clients. Last year the number of FUIB corporate clients grew from 4,862 to 5,381. "Berdyanskii Sea Commercial Port", companies of "Dnipromain" group, "Eastern-Ukrainian Metallurgical Company", "AGA - Ukraine", "Kulindorovskii Bread Baking Complex" and other companies joined FUIB clients.

The Bank offers a wide product range to its clients: keeping accounts, execution of payments and foreign exchange transactions in any currency, cash transactions and operations with letters of credit and guarantees, corporate payment cards Visa and MasterCard. Possible lending from the funds granted to the Bank by international financial institutions, like EBRD and DEG, allowed the client to reduce the borrowing cost. The Bank also provides its clients with the possibility of flexible management of borrowed funds within the total lending limit fixed for a client. Within this limit a client may perform various operations (e.g. non_cash covered documentary transactions, loan transactions, transactions with bills of exchange). The above operations have different costs, so the clients may optimize the total cost of their borrowings.

As for the deposit products, last year the clients showed great demand for certificates of deposit issued by the Bank. They have high liquidity due to the possibility of their prematurity repayment at the prestated rate. This, undoubtedly, contributes to the flexibility of the clients' own fund management. The fact that the Bank has licenses for trading securities and custodian activity gives FUIB's clients the opportunity to benefit from a whole range of transactions with securities within one bank. Paying salaries to employees of corporate clients by means of Visa and MasterCard payment cards has become a very popular service during the recent years. The number of companies using this service of the Bank doubled in 2002 up to 574.

Banking for private clients is a strategically important business direction for the Bank in view of the impetuous growth of this market and corresponding good opportunities to diversify the Bank's deposit base, to expand the range of commission incomes and to increase the number of interestearning assets.

Having started with rendering of quite a restricted set of banking services to the employees of its corporate clients, FUIB was gradually expanding its product range, as well as the circle of clients using them thanks to the accumulated experience, and also by developing technological base and the network of sub - branches and alternative distribution channels. Now FUIB offers to its clients accounts in various currencies, payments within Ukraine and abroad, including payments by non - account holders and urgent payments within the network of FUIB branches and sub - branches, money transfers through Western Union, foreign exchange services, purchase of gold bars produced by German company Degussa Catalysts Cerdec especially for FUIB. In the new building of FUIB Head Office and branch in Kyiv there is a depositary having all the necessary facilities for confidential and reliable storing of clients' valuables. Today the Bank offers 67 types of term deposits, which gives a wide range of choice to the clients as for the currency of investment, term of deposit and method of interest calculation.

Each depositor is given Visa or MasterCard. Last year the clients also had the opportunity to additionally deposit funds in term deposit or reduce its amount during the life of deposit. The Bank has also worked out 4 packages uniting several products, which makes it possible for the clients to receive the most convenient services for the most attractive prices.

FUIB offers various types of Visa cards and MasterCards to its clients. When the cash Euro was put into circulation FUIB became the first bank in Ukraine to offer cards in Euro. Last year the functionalities of ATMs were considerably enlarged. Now FUIB clients can transfer money from their card accounts to other card accounts, pay for the services of mobile operators, for utilities and for insurance companies' services, change PIN - codes on their own, receive not only Hryvnia, but also US Dollars from FUIB ATMs. Employees of the Bank's corporate clients receiving salary by means of payment cards issued by FUIB are offered overdrafts on payment cards. The company employer acts as a guarantor of fulfillment of their obligations on such overdrafts.

Development of alternative distribution channels is very important for FUIB in view of providing clients with services twenty - four hours a day and irrespective of their location. It is also important from the point of view of reduction of the Bank costs for client servicing and, correspondingly, greater possibilities of more attractive prices for banking products to its clients.

FUIB aims to utilize up - to - date approaches in the field of banking information technologies to achieve high functionality of software and communication equipment, which is, ultimately, an obligatory requirement for rendering modern, professional and qualitative banking services to the clients. FUIB operational system was modernized in the previous year - the last development of Misys IBS Ltd., Midas DBA R4, was put into operation, which will provide higher quality of operational system support and servicing. At the beginning of 2003 the key components of FUIB information technologies - Midas DBA R4 operational system and Arksys payment card processing system - were separated to different AS/400 servers, which significantly increased resistance and productivity of these systems.