‘The volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Region banks to legal entities came to approximately 200 billion RUR on April 1, 2007. Loans to sole traders amounted to 10 billion RUR, loans to individual borrowers reached 70 billion RUR,’ First Deputy Minister for Economics and Labor Nikolai Bespamyatnikh reported at a press conference devoted to banks’ contribution to the country’s economy on May 24, 2007.