On April 3, 2007 at the press conference in Kyiv it was reported about the results of cooperation of "Megabank" PLC with the International Financial Corporation, particularly participation of the Bank in the Piloting Program on improvement of corporate governance of the Project "Corporate governance in the bank sector of Ukraine".

"Megabank" PLC was represented by the top-management of the bank: the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Viktor Subotin and the International Financial Corporation (IFC) was represented by the Head of the Project "Corporate governance in the bank sector of Ukraine" Desmond O’Maonaigh.

The Head of the Project of the IFC "Corporate governance in the bank sector of Ukraine" Desmond O’Maonaigh began the press conference and informed that the decisions to let "Megabank" PLC out of the Piloting Program on improvement of corporate governance were accepted on the basis of successful results of cooperation.

Desmond O’Maonaigh specified, that participation of the Bank in the Program on improvement of corporate governance gave considerable positive results. During common work the Bank made a lot of changes in the internal documents of the bank, improved the structure of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board, included a post of the Corporate secretary and nominated the independent member to the Supervisory Board.

The work between the Project of the IFC and the Bank began in September, 2005 in the form of realization of Estimation of corporate governance of the Bank, and at the beginning of 2006 the Bank approved as a Piloting one in the Program of improvement of corporate governance. The bank cooperated with the Project according to the common plan of work, that was based on certain actual needs of the bank.

The top-management and average-management of the Bank took part in a number of closed seminars / trainings, the themes of which were: improvements of work of the Supervisory Board, effectiveness of work of the Audit Committee, importance of disclosing of information and transparence of the bank, determination of the conflict of interests and operations with the related persons, effective management of risks and activity of the Remuneration Committee and Nomination Committee. The bank also sent the bank’s experts (bookkeepers) for the training to receive the qualification on international standards of financial reporting. According to the recommendations on disclosing information, the Bank also improved its web-site.

The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Megabank Viktor Subotin said: "The Bank has been existing for 17 years and it is the regional leader among the banks of the Kharkiv region. The management of the bank pays much attention to the further development of the Bank and understands, that for augmentation of the Bank’s capital it is necessary to be integrated to the international markets of the capital. And for this purpose it is necessary to answer the international standards, among which there is corporate governance. We are glad, that we have had an opportunity to cooperate with the Project and to take advantage of the experience in the Project. We believe that due to our cooperative work we wiil make much progress".

Among the main advantages of participation in the Program it is necessary to allocate the following: the leadership in the bank sector due to the high standards of corporate governance; increase of the bank’s cost due to improvement of systems of operational management, risks management and adjusted system of communication among the management bodies of the bank; increase of durability, stability and reputation of the bank and also larger access to the international markets of the capital; decrease of the cost of resource base and increase of interest of potential investors.

Additional information:

IFC (the International Financial Corporation), the investment subdivision of the Group of the World Bank, assists for development of open and competitive markets in the countries with transitive economy and developing countries. The IFC supports stable private companies and other partners in creation of workplaces and granting of the main services to give people an opportunity to overcome poverty and to improve quality of life. As for June 30, 2006 the IFC invested over 56 billion US dollars of its equity and in addition attracted 25 billion US dollars of syndicated loans for 3 531 companies in 140 developing countries. The IFC together with its partners - donors gave consultations for the sum of over one billion US dollars for support of small business: attraction of private companies in development of the infrastructure, creation of favorable environment for business dealing, expansion of access to financing and also strengthening of ecological and social stability. More detailed information is on the web-site www.ifc.org

The Project "Corporate governance in the bank sector of Ukraine " is carried out on financial support of the State secretariate on economic affairs of Switzerland (www.ifc.org/ubcg) The State secretariate on economic affairs (seco) of the Swiss Confederation is a body, to the competence of which belongs the decision of all the main questions on economic policy. The purpose of seco is creation of the main conditions of regulatory and economic policy, which will assist to development of business and prosperity of the society as a whole.

Seco represents Switzerland in large international trade organizations and at international negotiations. Seco also carries out activity directed on decrease of poverty and granting of help to the countries with transitive economy concerning construction of a stable democratic society and good market economy. Every year Switzerland spends approximately 1,9 billion Swiss francs on cooperation on development and granting of help connected with transition to market conditions of managing to other countries .

"Megabank" PLC (till 1995 - "Dobrodiy") was founded in 1990. Its regional network includes 177 balance subsidiaries and branches in 17 regions of Ukraine.

According to the information of the bank, as for 01.04.2007 the net assets of the bank made 1 319 mln UAH, credit-investment portfolio - 1 090 mln UAH, regulative capital - 235 mln UAH, including authorized capital - 115 mln UAH.

The net profit for the first quarter of the current year - 5,173 mln UAH, for 2006 - 11,280 mln UAH. According to the data of the bank, at the beginning of 2007 its biggest shareholders were CJSC "M-Invest" - 33,58 %, Bank Austria Creditanstalt - 12,81, CJSC "Mega-Garant-Zhyttya" - 9,31 % and "Avtramat" PLC - 9,24 %.

In March, 2006 the bank placed 20 % of its own stocks among foreign portfolio investors from Austria, Germany, Russia and Switzerland.

Contacts:
Svitlana Sakhtinova, Megabank
8 057 714 36 40
Olga Duchenko, IFC
8 044 490 64 00