‘At this troubled moment, a bank deposit is the most suitable way of investing one’s money for no longer than a year. It is the only widely available instrument that guarantees you both the income and all of your money back. The deposits have a certain fixed interest; what is more, they are insured by the state, which is a very weighty advantage,’ says Rus-Bank-Ural’s Head of Treasury Grigory Stepanov. ‘As far as short-term investment is concerned, virtually nothing can beat a bank deposit’s risk/profitability ratio. Unless you engage in stock gambling, everything else either takes much

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days dropped by 50.90% (from 27.5 million RUR to 13.5 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

According to the findings of an interactive survey SKB-Bank conducted via its official website, people tend to think of the bank’s current ad campaign as ‘the people’s’ one. This was the epithet given to the ads by about five hundred respondents. SKB-Bank has been using the Soviet-style poster ads, united by a common slogan that reads, To the Bright Future! for over half a year now. ‘This advertising campaign fully meets all the goals we had in mind when launching it: the ads create a very memorable image of a bank as of a company close to the people, especially to the most financially active

‘We recently went for wholesale, rather than retail sales of our banking services in the business package format. This means our customers can now choose among several ‘lending schemes’ or ‘subscription offers’ depending on which package best suits their needs at the moment. A customer can pay once a month or even once a year and get the access to all the necessary services they won’t have to worry about paying for every time they need them. This approach benefits both the bank and the customer: our partners can get the kind of service that is as customized in accordance with their needs as

Ural Airlines announced they were going to reduce the fuel fee for Turkey-bound flights on September 10, 2008. The carrier’s latest provision 7.1-298 as of September 4, 2008 cancels their earlier one 7.1-203/1 as of June 26, 2008 and states that the fuel fee will come to ?31 per ticket for flights operated to Antalya or Dalaman from Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, or Perm using A 320 and TU 154M aircraft. If IL 86 is used, the fuel fee will amount to ?36. This means the fee will drop by 25.6%, 25.8%, and 20.5% for planes taking off in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and Perm, respectively. ‘The fuel

Starting September 5, 2008, MegaFon Ural, the major mobile operator, is going to update its subscribers on the exact time. The company’s customer can thus always find out the exact time within the region they are currently in, the company’s press officer reports. To use the service, one has to call the USSD number 166#; the offer is available for all of MegaFonUral’s subscribers located within the home network coverage area and costs .5 RUR (all taxes included).

The Far Eastern division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) examined the premises of Baltika-Khabarovsk (Baltika Beer Company’s subsidiary) and detected a number of violations related to maintenance of boiling facilities and electric installations. The inspectors also checked the condition and maintenance of hazardous facilities and chemical engineering units. The inspection resulted in a special surveillance report, while the company’s management was ordered to eliminate all the violations within a fixed time period.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was rated Russia’s 34th largest loan broker by RosBusinessConsulting. The agency’s experts looked into the banks’ MICEX and RTS trading activity involving Russian companies’ securities in July 2008. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s trading turnover came to $281.27m, which was nearly 1.5 times better than $188.01m-turnover in June 2008. What is more, the bank was given the 25th position on RTS FORTS Top 100 players list in July 2008. RosBusinessConsulting did not employ any market turnover figures for this one in the research,

Ural Airlines’ Commercial Director Kirill Skuratov signed an order decreasing the fuel fee for the company’s Egypt-bound flights on September 5, 2008 after Hurghada Airport has reduced its jet fuel prices for the third time already. The fuel fees have dropped several times over the last three months; the latest price of $42 (987 RUR) is a result of a 34.4% reduction since the beginning of the summer season. As for the Egyptian airports, after the two earlier decreases their jet fuel prices went down by 13% altogether. ‘Most market players felt strongly opposed to the fixed fuel fee price

Sverdlovsk Region’s dwellers owe local banks more than 131 billion RUR worth of ruble loan payments, the Bank of Russia’s official website states in the regional supplement to the banking statistics bulletin. The data are valid as of July 1, 2008. The region’s legal entities owe banks over 287 billion RUR at the moment.