Awards

At the ‘Financial Pearl of Russia 2008’ awards ceremony, the second annual public award of Family Budget magazine, the editorial staff of the magazine summed up the results of a vote by its readers, visitors to the www.7budget.ru site and an expert panel.

Finam.ru was declared the winner of the Financial Pearl of Russia award for the second time (Best Popular Financial Services & Best Financial Retail categories), and was again nominated for ‘Best Website – Most User-friendly Website’. “Winning the contest during such a difficult period is a sign of quality and evidence of successful work” noted the organizers of the Financial Pearl of Russia contest.

“Competition between financial sites continues to stiffen: old projects are being improved and new ones are appearing. However, we are the best, as before, and we will make every effort to preserve our status in the future” (Sergei Kudryashov, editor-in-chief, Finam.ru).

The annual Financial Elite of Russia awards ceremony was held in Moscow on June 18. Finam Investment Company was named the winner of the ‘Stock Market Investment Company – Discovery of the Year’ prize.

The award reflects the opinion of prominent Russian economists, financiers, and specialist media representatives and, as its name suggests, is designed to highlight the very best in the financial elite of the country. The prize was awarded to Finam for its achievements in the sphere of investment business, particularly for its leading positions as regards number of active clients, stock exchange turnover and the size of its regional network.

This is not the first time that Finam has won professional praise and public recognition: last year, the company also received the Financial Elite of Russia prize in the category ‘Investment Company – Discovery of the Year’. The company’s achievements have also been rewarded with many other prestigious prizes; this year, the company emerged as a prize-winner at the Elite of the Securities Market 2008 national contest in the category ‘Best Retail Services Company’.

On 21 May 2009, the Elite of the Securities Market 2008 awards ceremony was held as the culmination of the annual Russian national stock market competition. FINAM Holding won the award for the Best Retail Services Company. In addition, FINAM was highly rated by stock market experts for a whole range of other achievements. In particular, the holding was nominated for awards in the following categories: Best Derivatives Market Company, Best Stock Market Company and Best Traders Division.

The Elite of the Securities Market contest has been held by NAUFOR since 2000. The purpose of the contest is to recognize those professional securities market participants who have demonstrated the most distinguished achievements in various fields of the capital market. The nominees for the awards are chosen by the community of professional security market members, and the winners are selected by a professional jury.

“We are only too happy to have won an award in Russia’s most important stock-market contest. FINAM is indeed Russia’s leading retail services company, with the largest portfolio of active customers in the country. We always aim to give an efficient, high-quality service, create new opportunities for our customers and develop cutting-edge technologies. To some extent, FINAM has defined the standards for the whole Russian retail stock market during the last few years, and its winning of the Elite award has once again confirmed this assertion. I would like to note that the prize was awarded to the whole holding, which also reflects on the high quality of the work done by our subdivisions: FINAM Bank and Finam Asset Management” (FINAM general director, Igor Stepanyan).

RBC Rating publishes a list of Russia’s largest brokerage companies. As in 2007, the 2008 list was topped by FINAM. According to RBC Rating, the volume of trade transactions conducted by FINAM on the Russian RTS and MICEX stock exchanges totaled USD 105.79 billion in 2008, 13% more than the company’s closest rival.

A ceremony was held on May 25, 2006 to award winners of the "Elite of the Stock Market – 2005" contest. Finam Investment Company was recognized as the best firm in the Online Brokerage category. In the opinion of the federal jury, in the final stage of the contest Finam beat such companies as BrokerCreditService, KIT Finance, Zerich Capital Management, Surgutneftegazbank, etc.

The "Elite of the Stock Market" contest has been conducted by the National Association of the Stock Market Participants since 2000. The figurine awarded to the contest winner is the most prestigious prize in the investment business which confirms the recognition of the company's achievements by the professional community.

"In 2004 we received the Elite award as the best online broker, but our 2005 performance helped us gain leadership status in this area of investment business. This award reaffirms the efficiency of our strategy that aims to offer our clients the most advanced investment opportunities. At issue are not only the technologies applied, many of which are unique, but also customer services, training and information support. Meanwhile, all of these are available not only in Moscow, but also in most Russian regions. Needless to say, in the future we will be moving towards becoming a full-service company to offer its clients all the tools required for profitable investments" – Finam Investment Company's first deputy general director Igor Stepanyan said.

It's noteworthy that Finam Investment Company's analyst Olga Belenkaya (the Best Analyst category) is among the winners of the "Elite of the Stock Market - 2005" contest, who ranks among the Top 7 stock market analysts in Russia and the Top 3 analysts in the Central Federal District.

For the record, in April 2006 Finam Investment Company won the "Financial Elite of Russia" contest as the most customer-oriented company in the financial and economic sector.

On April 26, 2006 the ceremony was held to give the Russian Financial Elite Award, which for a short time has become a traditional reputation benchmark in the domestic financial sector.

The Russian Financial Elite Award has been presented since 2004 and sponsored by the Expert-Consultative Council attached to the Chairman of the RF Audit Chamber, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Bank of Russia, the Russian Banks Association, the Finance Ministry, the All-Russian Insurers Union, the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics and the Moscow State University.

Finam was given the title of the best company in the financial services sector and its activities were highly appreciated by professionals. Experts named the company "as that with a strongest focus on the client".

Victor Remsha, the general director of Finam Investment Company, said at the award ceremony, that "it is difficult to be client-oriented, but first you get used to it and later you find it appealing!"

Companies representing other subgroups (banks, insurance, management companies and non-governmental pension funds, leasing firms and media entities) also received Russian Financial Elite Awards.

The Russian Financial Elite Award is both playfully and seriously called the Russian Financial Oscar, pointing to the corporate image of nominees and heavyweights among jury members. This year it included head of the Russian Banks Association Garegin Tosunyan, president of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia Alexander Murychev, aide to the chairman of the RF Audit Chamber and executive secretary of the Expert-Consultative Council attached to the Chairman of the RF Audit Chamber Alexandr Korovnikov, director of the Finance Ministry's Financial Policy Department Alexei Savatyugin, president of the National Managers League Andrey Podoynitsin and chairman of the Russian Association of Leasing Companies, Rosleasing, Elena Skrynnik.

On June 11 The International Union of Internet Agents EZHE announced the results of the “Russian Online TOP” (ROTOP) Net contest. Finam.ru was ranked the best industry website of the year.Participants looking for the award featured Sostav.ru, RwR.ru, AdMarket.ru, to name but a few. Such strong and deserving rivals have made the contest exciting and the victory even more remarkable.The heated disputes swirled around participation and victory of Finam.ru in this nomination. According to the contest terms, corporate websites are not allowed to participate in such a contest. However, when Finam.ru came under scrutiny the jury concluded the resource is a powerful corporate-based industry website.At present, Finam.ru is a recognized news agency, where one can find all necessary information on the Russian financial market. The website offers visitors a whole package of unique information and analytical sources which is being constantly expanded. To date, Finam.ru is a No.1 source where tens of thousands of people can find any information on all sectors of the country’s stock market.We are pleased that pooled efforts of our professional team of journalists, analysts and help desk technicians were highly appreciated. They deserved the victory!

Rating of professional participants of the securities market targeting private investors by AK&M and Federal Securities Commission of Russia Central Regional Office:

• ZAO FINAM – No. 1 among 20 largest companies by securities turnover among private investors.

• ZAO FINAM – No. 2 among 20 largest companies, based on value of private investors’ holdings.

• ZAO FINAM – No. 1 among 20 largest companies by number of private investors holding non-zero cash or securities accounts.