Alliance Bank (Kazakhstan) received Quality Management System awarded by ISO 9001:2000

/KASE, October 24, 08/ - Alliance Bank (Almaty), the listed company of Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), disseminated the press release on the following: Quotation start Today Alliance Bank informed that it was assigned with the certificate proving that the Quality management systems (QMS) of its Head Office and Almaty City Branch comply with ISO 9001:2000 standards. The Certificate was issued after the certification due diligence carried out by AB Certification (France), a leading certification company in the Europe. "Our customers are certainly concerned about the quality of goods and services our bank provides them", - said Aida Sultanova, Vice President of Alliance Bank. - "Our customers need to be assured that their needs will be met as well as that the Company is a reliable partner with a long-term development programme in mind oriented to the best service quality practice. One of the most effective and widely recognised methods to provide such assurance for the Company is certification of its quality management system in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2000. The underlying ISO principles are based on the best international business practices." The quality management system (QMS) of any company is determined in accordance with the ISO 9001:2000 requirements. The ISO 9001:2000 international standard is applied to the companies willing to show their ability to provide goods and services that meet the customers' requirements. Introduction of QMS is mainly intended for the increase of the customers' satisfaction with the quality of the provided services. The project of QMS development and introduction in Alliance Bank was launched on 20 February 2007. The external expert of the Bank was KPARTNERS, a very experienced company in the field of implementation of international quality standards in the banking sector. During the first stage, the specialists of the Bank together with the external experts developed a concept of QMS establishing and development. Later on, a set of special measures was carried on to find out and eliminate non-conformity to the requirements of the standards, as well as to estimate the effectiveness of the QMS in Alliance Bank. In addition, the project provided special trainings for the Bank's top management and quality team and training programmes for the Bank's internal auditors. According to the ISO requirements, Alliance Bank has developed a special concept regulating the Bank's activity in the field of quality of the provided goods and services. This concept is an integral part of the entire policy of the Bank and complies with its strategic targets and meets the requirements and expectations of the customers. The final stage of the QMS introduction in Alliance Bank was the certification audit carried out by AB Certification, a recognized certification company in the Europe. According to the auditors' opinion, the Bank was recommended to be awarded the certificate of quality. "Obtaining the certificate does not mean completion of thework on improvement of the quality management system", - noticed Aida Sultanova. - "We are just in the beginning of our way. The main purpose of this system is not a certificate, but the improvements to be carried out in the Bank. It is very important to us that our customers are satisfied with the services provided by Alliance Bank, as we are aimed at the long-term cooperation. To achieve these targets we need a flexible organization structure and clearly specified business processes. The Quality Management System increases a transparency of the Bank in this field." According to Aida Sultanova, the main advantage of ISO 9001:2000 is an opportunity to improve permanently the quality management system. "The Bank specified this matter in its regulations, because we believe that the consistency control with regard to the international standards is very important", - said Vice President of Alliance Bank. - "We need to maintain the Bank in good conditions because the quality management system is subject to the annual inspections." Public Relations Alliance Bank JSC Tel.: +7 (727) 259 80 76 E-mail: pr@alb.kz Web-site: www.alb.kz Quotation end [2008-10-24]