Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 59.71% (from 19.635 million RUR to 7.910 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘The prices of vacation trips went up by 25% to 30% compared with the year earlier due to jet fuel becoming more expensive. The price of the rest of a trip’s components (that is, a hotel stay, food, and so on) has remained practically the same,’ director of Ural Tourism Association Tagir Sultanov observed in the course of a press conference. ‘I believe that the latest increase in prices was actually the last one. The season only lasts for about four months on average, and its first half has nearly come to an end by now. We expect the second half to be more favorable for the travelers in terms

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has recently found out that passengers who bought Vladivostok Avia’s Yekaterinburg-Moscow tickets online now cannot return them and get their money back. It has been reported that people who called the airline’s Yekaterinburg office in order to return their tickets were explained that this could only be done through the company’s website. In the meantime, the website does not provide any information whatsoever as to the ticket return procedure. The air carrier suggested that the customers should place an official letter demanding the

SKB-Bank managed to go through with its SKB-1 bond issue offer successfully. The bondholders could sell their bonds at a price that comprised 100% of their face value and get the coupon yield (determined by the bank for the fifth coupon period at 12.6% a year). The volume of the bonds offered for retirement totaled to 238,312,000 RUR (based on their face value), which comes to less than a quarter of the issue. Most of these bonds were bought by the bank’s new investors. SKB-Bank launched its bond issue on June 21, 2007. The volume of the issue came to 1 billion RUR; the bonds are to be in

BINBANK apparently fails to provide its potential borrowers with full data on their consumer loan offers. The bank’s website does provide certain criteria for getting the loan: one has to be no younger or older than a certain age, have a registered place of residence and be employed in the city or region where one applies for a loan. However, only after a customer fills in and submits the application does the bank’s expert contact them; he or she answers the applicant’s questions and explains what papers the bank must get. At the same time, these experts are believed to miss out on some

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of June 30, 2008, the share price of BCS Consumer Sector Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 17.58% since the beginning of the year.

Kommersant came up with the results of a research done on Russia’s factoring market opportunities in 2007. The magazine’s analysts report the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was featured in their Russia’s Top 30 factoring market players list. The magazine reports the total worth of debts yielded to the bank as a result of its factoring transactions amounted to 73,650,140,000 RUR last year, thus the bank got the 29th best position in the rating. The volume of finances provided by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development to its customers reached 60 million RUR, which

To upgrade the machinery, one of the company’s production shops had to close down for the time being. The renovating process is expected to take fifteen days, in which the equipment of two rolling mills (850 and 650) will be improved upon. This will include the breakdown mill, the pinion stand, the spindle system that rotates the rollers, and the water-accumulator installation that supports the balance of the upper rollers. In addition, the roller conveyors, manipulating equipment, and six saws will be repaired. Rolling mill 850 will be fitted with the automated breakdown mill control system.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Russia Sir Anthony Russell Brenton said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ural and Tyumenskaya Linia in Tyumen on July 2, 2008 that it was sad to hear TNK-BP’s Russian and British stockholders could not agree on certain points. He noted the embassy was willing to facilitate the conflict resolution. However, no direct interference in the stockholders’ affairs was deemed acceptable; nor should Russian state authorities step in. Anthony Brenton believes the shareholders must

Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Roman Panov met the heads of the region’s municipalities in the course of their monthly meeting to discuss the implementation of the state guarantees system within the regional healthcare network. The system is designed to work in two directions. Firstly, it aims to eliminate the waiting queues, as data on these are promptly collected by the health ministry on a daily basis. Things got better in most towns and cities, while the less successful municipalities were asked to use the summertime for improving upon their clinics’ patient service. Secondly, the