Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe, has been named the best trade finance bank in CIS by Global Trade Review magazine for the second year in a row.

Sberbank is the only Russian bank that has received the award, with previous winners including HSBC, Citibank, Commerzbank, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered.

"The bank is doing everything possible to not only maintain its leading position in Russia and CIS, but also to enter the top 10 European banks by 2018 by increasing the portfolio of its transactions to $30 billion," Andrey Ivanov, global head of trade finance and correspondent banking at Sberbank, said.

The trade financing portfolio of the bank has increased from $2 billion to $12.5 billion over the past three years, Ivanov said.

Sberbank offers a full range of trade financing and documentary business products that are being diversified as new trade financing business areas are developed.

The first financing transactions insured by the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance and transactions in the field of aviation financing have already been closed this year.

Through the development of an international network Sberbank is actively implementing intragroup transactions involving foreign subsidiaries of the banks of Sberbank Group in the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey.

"Given the successful implementation strategy of international expansion and the expected synergies from the geographical expansion of the Group in the coming years, Sberbank will definitely take a significant share of the international trade financing market," Ivanov said.