January 25, 2013. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) adopted a new policy on setting exchange rates for its cash-based foreign exchange transactions: the spreads (the difference between the buying and selling price) was reduced by 0.33 RUR against the dollar (compared with 0.4 RUR) and by 0.48 RUR against the euro, the bank’s press officer reports.

‘This is above all beneficial for our customers,’ says UBRD Foreign Currency Transactions Director Ruslan Khamzin.

According to Khamzin, the new exchange rate policy will decrease the bank’s returns on every single transaction, but it will raise the overall sales turnover. Thus the foreign currency sales volume is expected to double in 2013. In 2012, this figure came to about $70m and nearly ?20m.