RBC.Rating included SKB-Bank in the rating of Russia’s Top 50 banks in terms of the number of subsidiaries they run. The agency’s analysts report SKB-Bank ran ninety-one subdivisions as of July 1, 2008 and has more than one hundred offices now. Geographically, these range from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk and can be found in nine time zones. As a matter of fact, only three Urals-based banks were actually featured in this Top 50 rating.

‘We are now offering fewer Honda cars on credit because the banks are taking longer to process the loan applications and only approve of the most reliable borrowers. All this has to do with the ongoing financial crisis,’ Alexei Tarasov, a salesperson from Yekaterinburg’s Honda dealing center (Saret Auto, managed by Autoland Holding), said to an UrBC reporter. Tarasov explained their only customers whom the crisis hadn’t affected were those who pay in full and at once. ‘Our cash sales have been on the increase over the last few months,’ he noted.

Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev asked Deputy Head of Government Alexander Zhukov to support the implementation of Academic, a major construction project in Yekaterinburg. The President’s address to the Government states that making this project a reality will result in the emergence of a new administrative district in Yekaterinburg that will meet all the modern living and environmental standards. In the meantime, Sverdlovsk Region Government, Yekaterinburg municipal council, and the project’s strategic investor RENOVA-StroyGroup are working on a set of measures that will help provide the

‘We are not making anybody redundant and there are no layoffs,’ the spokesperson for Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Elena Azovtseva said to an UrBC reporter. ‘It’s true that fewer people are needed when the production output is on the decrease, and a certain number of workers will not be involved in the technological process. But this is only a temporary thing brought about by our personnel optimization policies. We’ve got plenty of multi-skilled employees whose expertise is used for other jobs, like overhauls, for example,’ she explained.

‘We have already increased the prices of some of our buildings by 2%. When our new housing gets commissioned, the price of a square meter will rise by 15% to 30%. Exactly when this can happen will depend on the market situation, but if we don’t go for a price rise, there will simply be no point in starting the construction at all, even though increased prices might naturally lead to deferred demand,’ says LSR-Ural Management Company’s General Director Andrei Bibikov. ‘As far as the housing prices in buildings already under construction are concerned, they haven’t been raised much. The prime

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development offers its customers a new deposit type. The bank’s Convenient deposit provides for a 15% annual interest rate, while the lower money limit for opening a deposit comes to as little as 5,000 RUR. The deposit period comes to 100 days, and you can top up your deposit account any time you like. What is more, you can also withdraw a portion of the money without losing the interest. The interest is actually paid and capitalized on a daily basis. You can use the offer at any of the bank’s offices.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to non-state for-profit organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 25.94% (from 495.91 million RUR to 367.254 million RUR) in January-September 2008.

The share price of Vympelcom’s ADRs went down by 3.659% and came to $12.9 per ADR at the close of business at New York Stock Exchange on October 7, 2008, Vedomosti reports.

Sberinvestbank will have to pay a 40,000-ruble fine for violating the federal advertising bill, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service reports. The Service’s regional division declared on May 21, 2008 that the bank’s car loan ad printed in Telesem newspaper was improper due to missing some essential information on the additional expenses the borrower would have to bear, namely, the expenses resulting from having to insure the automobile that would itself serve as a loan guarantee. On June 4, 2008, the Service filed a lawsuit against the bank,

Sverdlovsk Region Railways were not among the Russian Railways Public Company’s growing branches in January-September 2008, as its passenger turnover volume hadn’t gone up during these months compared with January-September 2007, the spokesperson for Russian Railways Public Company reports. In the meantime, Russian Railways’ official website features a list of the company’s branches that did quite well in terms of raising their passenger turnover volume, but Sverdlovsk Region Railways did not make it to the list. ‘Our list does not comprise any of our subsidiaries whose passenger turnover