The natural person loan portfolio of Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia amounted to over 54.1 billion RUR at the beginning of 2007, which is 17.3 billion better than a year earlier. Mortgage loans comprised around 20% of the portfolio; the number of auto loans went up 3.6 times compared to the beginning of 2006. ‘Last year, the competition on the regional consumer lending market was extremely fierce,’ says Vyacheslav Reshetnikov, Consumer Lending Director of Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia. ‘Still, we managed to achieve impressive rate of loan portfolio growth through coming up with more and

The preferences of people who use commercial banks have changed a lot over the past year, claims a recent survey. The respondents were asked about their top-priority proviso that could actually influence their choice of a type of deposit. The survey was conducted by SKB-Bank online via the corporate website www.skbbank.ru; 150 people responded altogether. The results of the survey were compared with those of the survey conducted in February 2006. It thus appears that the interest rate offered on a deposit is still the top-priority factor for 35.7% of respondents (the majority of those

The city council and Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma decided to increase the city’s budget supply for 2007 by 1.5 billion RUR, Mayor Arkadiy Chernetskiy announced at a press conference. ‘Given the utmost budget deficit (our expenses outstrip our income by 9.9%), our experts have to be looking for additional ways of raising profits. This is why the basic rental fee for municipal property will go up 20% on April 1, 2007,’ Mr. Chernetskiy said. ‘Today, the basic rental fee for municipal property is, on average, 2.5 times less than that set for commercial property and amounts to slightly over 2,100

‘The city council is going to lay damages occasioned by the failure of the bridge across Vostochnaya St. in Yekaterinburg last year at UralHyproTrans since these were the experts from this company who designed the project,’ Konstantin Pudov, the spokesperson for the council, said to UrBC. ‘Their fault is not to be doubted, there was definitely a mistake in the project, and it was this mistake that caused the accident. This is why UralHyproTrans will have to either recoup us for the loss incurred, or undergo civil suit. We do hope, though, that the company will agree to the out-of-court

According to the report devoted to the environmental performance of the Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog) in 2006, the enterprises of Sverdlovsk Region dumped the total of 1,229,664 tons of pollutants last year. The lion’s share of harmful substances was produced by metallurgical and fuel-energy companies (their shares in the total amount of all emissions come to 43.7% and 35% respectively). They also dumped most sulfur dioxide (49.2% and 47.3% of the total amount, respectively). The former emitted most carbon monoxide as well (the

‘The local division of the Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Agency (aka Rospotrebnadzor) has been considering filing an administrative suit against Russian Standard Bank. We’ve received four complaints regarding the bank this month; all the complaints have to do with violation of consumer rights in the field of consumer lending,’ says Elena Bogacheva of Rospotrebnadzor. More and more people have been dissatisfied with the banking services lately; based on the number of complaints placed with the local division of Rospotrebnadzor and with Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights

‘The Russian Federation Supreme Court of Arbitration rejected the appeal of Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd. for the third time. This means that the resolution made by the Ural Division of Rospotrebnadzor (the consumer rights watchdog) has been declared valid by three legal bodies,’ says Elena Bogacheva of Rospotrebnadzor. More and more people have been dissatisfied with the banking services lately; based on the number of complaints placed with the local division of Rospotrebnadzor and with Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee, in most cases, this involves two certain banks, namely,

UralTransBank is the only large bank in Sverdlovsk Region with a decreasing loan portfolio, claims the rating compiled by the financial analysts of Severnaya Kazna on the basis of data provided by the largest banks of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, and Perm Regions in January 2007. According to this rating, the loan portfolio of UralTransBank went down .2% in January 2007 and amounted to 6,028,371,000 RUR on February 1, 2007.

As regards Ural Federal District, the natural gas industry and the trunk pipelines had more accidents last year than before, whereas the chemical enterprises had fewer accidents, and so did companies using lifting equipment, reports the spokesperson for the Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog). The total material damage classed as real loss was estimated at 23,575,200 RUR, which is 20% more than in 2005. TyumenTransGas was the one that sustained most losses (17,189,900 RUR). 70.8% of industrial accidents in Ural Federal District were

‘We are worried about the possible social outcomes of the dispute at Nizhnetagilskiy Metalware Plant. This enterprise plays a great part in the city’s life and economy, and we can’t let people lose their jobs and salaries due to this dispute. The council is now trying as best it can to prevent this from happening,’ says Alexander Soloviev, the chief press officer of Nizhniy Tagil city administration. ‘The upcoming council meeting will be devoted to the issue of the plant, among other things,’ Mr. Soloviev said. The representatives of Nizhnetagilskiy Metalware Plant declared the other day that