'People tended to open more ruble deposits rather than the foreign currency ones in the last quarter of the year, so the volume of ruble deposits in banks located in Ural Federal District rose by 10.2% compared to an 8.3% increase in the volume of foreign currency deposits in October-December 2007,’ the Deposit Insurance Agency’s report says. Kurgan Region had the smallest share of foreign currency deposits in its banks (it only came to 1% of the total deposit volume on January 1, 2008), while Tyumen Region had the greatest share which amounted to 10.4% of the total deposit volume.

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg resumed working after its runway and parking areas had been properly cleaned. ‘It took fourteen vehicles and a team of workers to remove all the snow that was there,’ the airport’s PR expert Olga Ladeischikova said to UrBC. The airport remained closed for the whole morning of February 21, 2008 due to a continuous heavy snowfall.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 22.22% (from 1.8 million RUR to 1.4 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders despite overdraft dropped by 100% (from 1.397 million RUR to zero) in December 2007-January 2008.

The share price of Alemar Index MICEX (the open unit investment trust run by Alemar Management Company) went down by 10.43% between January 1, 2008 and February 15, 2008. These data are available from Alemar Management Company’s official website.

Settlement services and cash transactions are the most popular baking service with the Russian businesses at the moment, a recent marketing research on the banking and insurance services to businesses shows. Loans were the second most popular service, as over 45% of respondents admitted they borrowed money from banks at some point or other. Bank cards and salary accounts were rated as the third most popular service, with 43% of those surveyed using it, followed by international payments (used by 21.2% of respondents) and bank deposits (used by 19.5% of the surveyed companies’ top managers).

Ural Treasures Bank is now offering its customers a new service known as Internet Bank. The service is available for both businesses and private individuals, who can now enjoy a full range of banking services and easy account management opportunities online without even setting foot inside the bank office. To use the service, any modern computer with an Internet connection supporting Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, or FireFox will do. E-banking is compatible with Windows, Linux, and other operating systems and ensures a guaranteed safety level through Crypto C system

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 18, 2008, Birzhevaya Ploschad - Index MICEX (the Bank of Moscow Management Company) has gone down by 11.57% since the beginning of the year.

The banks located in Ural Federal District managed to raise the volume of investments by private individuals by 38.5% last year, including a 10% increase in October-December 2007, the Deposit Insurance Agency says. Sverdlovsk Region-based banks did particularly well, as their natural person deposit portfolio went up by 45%, which is better than the results reached by the banks based in Tyumen Region (34.8%), Chelyabinsk Region (33.1%), or Kurgan Region (24.1%). Only the banks of Sverdlovsk and Tyumen Regions experienced some natural person deposit portfolio growth (by 12.6% and 12.9%

'The number of consumer loan cooperatives like RichBrokerCreditService Active, Active Invest, and Grand Capital has been increasing in Sverdlovsk Region lately,‘ Deputy GD and Director of Accord Invest’s Ural branch Konstantin Selyanin said to UrBC. In the meantime, the representatives of Accord Invest’s Ural branch have placed over fifteen complaints with the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s regional division since February 1, 2008. The complaints are all related to these cooperatives’ activity. 'Five more cooperatives were introduced in the region within the last two or three