Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for over 3 years went down by 26.44% (from 8 million RUR to 5. 885 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

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.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is about to reach its maximum production output ever this year, the company’s Chairman Viktor Rashnikov announced at a trade union meeting. MMK is now the world’s twentieth largest steelmaking enterprise and Russia’s No. 1. MMK produced 11.046 million tons of steel in January-October 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 771,700 tons. The company expects to make 12.2 million tons of steel by the end of 2007. Mr. Rashnikov also commented on the company’s successful IPO at London Stock Exchange and the launch of a number of large-scale

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

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works’ radiation safety service is going to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. Over the last 25 years, the service believes it has managed to detect and remove 517 radiation sources. Their actions resulted in cancellation of the already scheduled assembling of 212 heightened danger devices and disposal of 305 batches of radioactive materials, the spokesperson for Evraz Group said to UrBC. The plant’s radiation safety service has received governmental accreditation by now; its laboratory consists of 26 unique pieces of equipment that make it possible to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 12.27% (from 1,066,036,000 RUR to 935,240,000 RUR) in January-October 2007.

Within the ten months of 2007, the return of duties to Sverdlovsk Region’s consolidated budget exceeded the corresponding figures for the previous year by 28%, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. In January-October 2007, the return of duties came to 84,75,700 RUR, whereas in 2006, the figure only amounted to 65,889,000 RUR. The spokesperson indicated a considerable rate of tax proceeds growth for a number of taxes, including the company income tax (an increase of 28.7% against the same figures for the previous year), the graduated personal tax (an increase of 32.8%), the lump-sum tax

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by TyumenEnergoBank to non-profit non-governmental organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 100% (from .5m RUR to 0 RUR) in January-October 2007.

On November 23, 2007 the Bank of Russia registered the US dollar exchange rate at the level of 23.42 RUR per one US dollar. This is the lowest US dollar rate recorded since August 1999. On the contrary, the rate of the European currency tends to exceed its own peak values, and its rate on November 23, 2007 amounted to 36.09 RUR per Euro. The crumbling of the US dollar rate causes no boom over the exchange offices. However, the Bank of Russia’s reports show that in 2007, the monthly amounts of US dollars sold by natural persons were always higher than the volumes of US dollars bought by them.

Yekaterinburg Customs processed 52,000 cargo manifests related to export and import of goods in January-October 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 10.6%. 1,700 legal entities were involved in foreign trade turnover, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. The volume of customs duties that are to be directed to the federal budget outstripped the initially planned amount by 3.44%. The budget was given 8.456 billion RUR, which is 1.764 billion RUR better than in January-October 2006. The foreign trade turnover in Yekaterinburg Customs zone reached $6.2bn in

'In January 2008, nearly all the strong drinks sold in Russia are bound to grow more than 5% pricier due to freight expenses going up,’ Galion’s Sales Director Alexander Luchnikov said to UrBC. Mr. Luchnikov says both automobile and railway transportation fares are always on the rise, so the players on the strong drinks market just have to up their prices