B&N Bank, which claims to be among the most reliable and fastest-growing universal banks, has launched a risk management project to assess operational risks with the help of software from SAS (News - Alert).

Pavel Samokhvalov, director of Risk Management at B&N Bank, stated that operational risk incidents differed from case to case and spoke of the role that SAS played in assessing them.

In a press release, he said, “Using SAS, we created a high-quality database of risk incidents to see current figures and to build a reasonable forecast. Now, information about all loss incidents is available and can be tested. The system can generate reports on any set of risk indicators without the help of IT staff.”

Kirill Lyubenstov, senior vice president of B&N Bank, stressed the need for shareholders and top managers to assess operational risks while shaping business strategy and operational management.

SAS supports the entire decision-making process and has helped B&N Bank meet the requirements of the Central Bank of Russia.

Julius Goldberg, director of the Financial Sector, SAS Russia/CIS, stated that SAS is the leader in operational risk management software and it’s good to see that solution developers in Russia are adopting today’s best practices in collaboration with the world’s leading banks.

The integrated, operational-risk management system is expected to reduce losses and determine the coverage of operational risk capital. The rules are based on Basel Committee principles and are expected to save B&N Bank tens of millions of dollars.

Lyubenstov elaborated on the benefits of SAS and said, “SAS helps us to quickly identify bottlenecks that we can address with the proper resources. Since B&N Bank has thousands of employees and an extensive sales network throughout the country, investments in operational risk management will pay off quickly.”

Established in 1993, B&N Bank has 124 offices in 33 Russian regions and is continually expanding its ATM network to improve customer service. In 2008, B&N Bank became head of the Bashinvestbank sales network.