Small Business Development Center was set up by SKB-Bank in Yekaterinburg about a year ago; it was then seen as a special bank office where businesspeople could use the entire range of financial and accompanying non-financial services in the field of accounting, taxation, legal advice, and so on. 'The Center’s performance can be characterized as rather impressive: not only did the bank’s client database doubled, but the number of customers our partner companies obtained went up as well,’ SKB-Bank’s Small and Medium-Scale Business Loans Director Irina Kuzmina says. SKB-Bank decided to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank UralSib to state-run for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 87.7% (from 178.56 million RUR to 21.963 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

'Since the weather is usually so cold in the Urals, going to the seaside is one of the most popular ways of spending one’s vacation here. In the summer, people mainly go to Turkey, and in the winter, most of them head for Egypt. Egypt is popular because of four reasons: firstly, it’s quite an affordable place to go to, especially in November and December (that is, the months of last-minute travel). You can stay at a five-star hotel for a week, and it will only cost you 10,000 RUR,’ says Director of Inna Tour Travel Agency Inna Averyanova. 'Secondly, Egypt is a country where you can

URSA Bank came up with two new deposit offers: New Year Hit deposit scheme and New Year Present one. The latter is valid for 92 days, with the interest rate coming to 12% a year. The minimum amount of money you have to deposit is 30,000 RUR, and you can always top your deposit up. The interest is capitalized at the end of the deposit period. The deposit is mainly meant for the bank’s first-time customers. In addition, if you place at least 100,000 RUR with the bank, you are given a Visa Electron and/or a Visa Classic that you may use to get your interest. The New Year Hit deposit is valid for

UC RUSAL and ONEKSIM Group signed an agreement regarding the acquisition of 25% and one share of Norilsk Nickel that currently belong to ONEKSIM, whereas ONEKSIM is going to get 11% of UC RUSAL’s shares and some financial remuneration. Besides, ONEKSIM is going to become one of UC RUSAL’s BOD members, UC RUSAL’s press officer said to UrBC. 'We see this as a strategically important deal that will serve as a springboard for the creation of a diversified mining and metallurgical corporation in Russia. UC RUSAL has already used its competitive advantages to build a powerful platform that

Another stock market workshop took place in the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Investment Center. This time, the workshop was devoted to private finances management (from savings to investments) and was targeted at putting the attendees in the picture of how stock market investments are different and why they are better than the traditional savings techniques. Irina Yakhontova from the bank’s Investment Services made a report on investing in securities and precious metals and tried to give her audience a clear-cut idea as to the stock market mechanisms and criteria one should

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to natural persons for 91 to 180 days went down by 80.58% (from 4.311 million RUR to 837,000 RUR) in January-October 2007.

Novolipetsk Integrated Metallurgical Complex (NLMK) reports it is currently negotiating with Maxi Group in order to possibly buy the company’s controlling shareholding. The two parties involved have so far reached a preliminary agreement regarding the potential sale. The transaction is still to be further negotiated upon, approved of by the purchasing enterprise’s BOD and shareholders, and will probably have been completed by the end of 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service says Aviaprad has violated the current advertising law, the spokesperson for the Service reports. Among Aviaprad’s faults are failing to provide the Service with copies of advertising aids, which is why the carrier was accused of violating the Federal Advertising Law. This bill states that all the promotional materials or their copies as well as all the changes made to them and all the agreements related to design, implementation, placement, and distribution of ads must be kept in a company’s archives for twelve months after the ads

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ Bank to natural persons went down by 34.13% (from 14.683 million RUR to 9.671 million RUR) in January-October 2007.