SKB-Bank’s BOD Chairman Mikhail Khodorovskiy met the Bank of Russia’s First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev to speak about the financial status quo in the Urals and to discuss the Ural banking system’s future prospects, SKB-Bank’s press officer reports. ‘The Bank of Russia’s support of the region’s key banks is a strategic step on the way to improving Russia’s entire economy,’ SKB-Bank believes.

The media keep informing the public about Bank24.ru’s possible bankruptcy. UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has already reported earlier that one of small-scale Yekaterinburg-based banks affected by the financial crisis might declare itself insolvent during the recess on November 5-6, 2008. A number of the bank’s customers say the bank has already stopped all the payments involving legal entities’ accounts. The money in the private individuals’ accounts has been frozen for two weeks so far, which might mean Bank24.ru is going through a technical failure that will

Starting October 30, 2008, Vladivostok Avia will no longer be operating Yekaterinburg-Shardzha flights to the United Arab Emirates. This means only two flights have been operated by the carrier (on October 23, 2008 and October 27, 2008) since the destination has been initially offered this season. The passenger load is reported to have been very low. Experts believe this failure was brought about by the wrong choice of the company’s development direction. ‘There are already more than plenty of flights from Yekaterinburg to the United Arab Emirates at the moment,’ says More Travel’s Commercial

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s BOD Chairman Vladimir Frolov believes the bank’s current financial troubles have been caused by a hostile takeover attempt. ‘Starting October 13, 2008, the bank’s customers were flooded with text messages and ICQ alerts claiming the bank was in great trouble. It only sounded natural since the whole world has been affected by a financial crisis, and Russia is no exception. So it really is the best time to alarm the people,’ the bank executive said in the course of a Channel 4 interview. Vladimir Frolov claims some other bank and Sverdlovsk Region Government were actually

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank keeps preventing its customers from cashing their deposits before the end of the deposit period, the bank’s customer said to an UrBC reporter. The bank stopped cashing the deposits before the end of the deposit period altogether last week. The bank’s call center explained the decision to this extent had been taken by the Bank’s BOD Chairman. The unhappy customer also says Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank stopped any non-cash payments directed not only to some other banks but even to their own subsidiaries in other cities and towns.