According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 94.52% (from 13.141 million RUR to 719,000 RUR) in January-September 2008.

Standard & Poor’s rating department has recently demoted Uralsvyazinform’s credit outlook from Stable to Negative due to the telecommunications provider’s low liquidity. The company’s long-term credit rating was confirmed at BB-, the spokesperson for Standard & Poor’s reports. The rating agency explains Uralsvyazinform’s credit rating has been affected by the company’s poor liquidity indicators and a dire need for short-term debt refinancing as well as having to control the growing expenses and keep up with the net operating margin. The fierce competition on the regional mobile

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 100% (from 1.466 million RUR to zero) in January-September 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders despite overdraft dropped by 62.32% (from 8.391 million RUR to 3.161 million RUR) in January-September 2008.

Association of Regional Banks of Russia thanked SKB-Bank’s management for their support and help with the coordination of the 6th international banking forum called Russian Banks 21st Century. The forum was held in Sochi in September 2008, the bank’s press officer reports. The event coordinators said ‘SKB-Bank’s participation ensured the best quality forum both content– and logistics-wise.’ Based on the forum’s outcomes, SKB-Bank was awarded with an honorary diploma, while President of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia and the State Duma Deputy Anatoly Aksakov spoke about the

URSA Bank was given the 183d position on the Finance magazine’s Russia’s Top 500 companies list in terms of revenue volume in 2007. What is more, the bank proved the country’s fourth fastest-growing business, thus getting promoted by 144 positions compared to a year earlier. According to the magazine’s rating, URSA Bank’s profits reached 24.07 billion RUR in 2007, which was 144% better than in 2006. The bank’s net profit rose by 163% and came to 3.77 billion RUR. URSA Bank was rated the country’s 14th most successful bank in terms of revenue last year against the 20th position in 2006.

RBC.Rating reports Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank invested 2.47 million RUR in securities in January-June 2008, which exceeds the figures for the first half of 2007 by 421.94%. These data are available from the agency’s Top500 Banks rating in terms of securities investments in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market’s crisis has already led to a major downfall in many issuers’ stock prices.

Raiffeisenbank denied any rumors related to alleged introduction of limits on cashing of deposits. ‘We never had any limits on giving back our private customers the money they had deposited,’ the bank’s BOD member and Private Customer Service Director Roman Vorobiev said to an UrBC reporter. In the meantime, a number of banks actually do have some problems with interbank lending and cash at the time of the country’s economic crisis and the financial market’s problems.

The latest re-certification audit at MSA a.s. (part of Rimera and one of the leading Czech pipeline fittings manufacturers) proved that the plant’s produce met all of the American Petroleum Institute’s requirements. MSA a.s. has already got the API’s license that guarantees their produce’s great quality. Each manufactured item gets stamped with a special API monogram that proves its compliance with the institute’s quality standards. The re-certification audit procedure is carried out on an annual basis and is the obligatory proviso for any enterprise willing to be able to use the API monogram

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to financial bodies and local governments for 91 to 180 days went down by 66.82% (from 5 million RUR to 1.659 million RUR) in January-August 2008.