Prime Minister Vladimir Putin opened the centre by raising his hand to a special device that identifies a person by reading his or her palm print. The centre's personnel showed Mr Putin how both the centre's systems and all of Sberbank's processes can be controlled from an operations room. They also introduced Mr Putin to the Irish team of professionals who helped build the centre.

During the tour, the centre's staff showed Mr Putin how Sberbank's "loan factory" operates. The centre processes loan applications from individuals and small businesses in real-time – 24 hours a day, seven days a week –

and the process is fully automated. Each client application is processed in an average of about 17 hours, regardless of where the client is located. The electronic system itself decides in 80% of cases, using 280 algorithms and exchanging data with various institutions and agencies, from the Federal Tax Service to the credit bureau. Operator intervention is only required in the most difficult cases.

Every day, the system makes decisions on issuing 25,000 loans totalling 2.7 billion roubles. In its three years of operation, this Sberbank "loan factory" has approved five million loans out of eight million applications.

"In 70% of cases, the loan is approved on the client's terms or better," the centre's staff told Mr Putin.

The centre has a dual power supply system: diesel generators will supply power if the main electrical power supply fails. In addition, the centre has its own fuel storage station.

"And is there firewood?" asked Mr Putin.

"The only thing we don't have is firewood," said Sberbank CEO German Gref.

The centre's total area is over 16,000 square metres, with 5,000 square metres of operations rooms. It cost Sberbank $1.2 billion to build, and Mr Gref said that it will pay for itself in six years.

The centre was launched on the 170th anniversary of Sberbank of Russia. It is the largest bank data processing centre in Europe, consolidating the information resources of all of Sberbank's regional banks and increasing the productivity of the bank's computational processes.