Awards for Excellence 2009: Slovakia

Vseobecna Uverova Banka (VUB) takes the best bank title in Slovakia on the back of a strong performance that made it the country’s most profitable banking group in 2008. Moreover, it continued this performance in the first quarter of this year when it was the only big banking group to grow operating profit, which rose by 21% year on year. The bank’s cost-income ratio at 48.9% in the first quarter was a full 10 percentage points better than its main competitors, which means the bank is well placed to withstand the deteriorating operating environment brought about by the global economic downturn. Despite growing its loan book nearly twice as fast as the market average over the past 18 months, the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio remains at a comfortable level of 82%.