‘The range of flight destinations Ural Airlines is going to operate this year has been greatly expanded. We now offer our customers many more flights to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the Czech Republic, and a number of other countries. In addition, we have recently resumed our flights to Paris and are planning on introducing a London-bound flight. In fact, over 80% of our New Year offers have already been booked and sold. We actually expect the passenger turnover to go up by 25% in the first quarter of 2009,’ Ural Airlines’ General Director Sergey Skuratov announced in the course of a

Standard & Poor’s confirmed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s long-term credit rating at B-. At the same time, the international agency’s long-term rating outlook was demoted from Stable to Negative. ‘We had to reconsider the bank’s rating outlook because of the problematic environment the bank has to operate in. This trying environment is affecting the liquidity level and the asset quality of all Russian banks, and the UBRD is no exception,’ says Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Viktor Nikolskiy. On the other hand, Standard & Poor’s analysts do admit that the

URSA Bank came up with a financial report for the first half of 2008; the report has been drawn up in accordance with the International Accounting Standards. The bank’s assets rose by 1.3 times over one year and reached $8.1bn in January-June 2008. The bank’s own funds increased by 1.5 times and amounted to $1.29bn on July 1, 2008. URSA Bank’s revenues came to $96.8m, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 1.6 times. This is actually an indicator of a 19.9% ROE and a 2.7% return on assets, which are rather good figures for the banking sector. URSA Bank’s net lending portfolio reached

Moscow, 21 October 2008 - UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the launch of production of super thin 9 microns aluminium foil at the ARMENAL foil mill (Armenia). The company invested USD 6 million in super thin foil production technology in 2007-2008 to meet the high demand from global markets. The share of super thin foil in the total volume of production at ARMENAL will rise to 70% once the new equipment reaches its design capacity. The super thin foil is aimed at clients in the USA, Europe, and Middle East. The increase of super thin foil

Starting October 20, 2008, URSA Bank’s most frequently visited offices in the Urals are going to stay open longer. ‘Our customers can now peacefully apply for a loan, have a bank card issued, use a money order, open a bank deposit, top up their accounts or withdraw some money after the end of the regular working day,’ the bank’s press officer said to an UrBC reporter. Such Yekaterinburg-based offices as Generalskiy, Yuzhniy, Dom Kredita, Na Kosmonavtov, and Botanicheskiy now welcome visitors from 9 AM to 9 PM. The same hours have been introduced for the offices located in Krasnoturinsk and

According to UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics’ own sources, Bank24.ru might impose even more sanctions on people and businesses who are trying to take their money out of the bank deposits. For one, the bank might raise the interest rates on loans by 10% in case the loan involves a company that withdrew some working assets from Bank24.ru in September or October 2008. The bank’s call center employee explained the management hadn’t made any official decisions yet but did admit that it was actually not improbable.

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Chairman Vladimir Frolov said in the course of a Channel 4 program aired on October 18, 2008 that the databases of some local banks could have been stolen. ‘This or that bank’s bankruptcy rumors never hit the provincial towns in the periphery of Yekaterinburg. No gossip ever popped up there. What I think had happened was that someone had stolen quite a few banks’ databases and used the information to ‘warn’ the banks’ private customers and business client against the danger of the bank allegedly going bust. I feel this is a grave circumstance that the Federal Security

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank keeps charging the customers who want to cash their deposits before the end of the deposit period a 20% commission. This is charged in case a customer takes out more than 50,000 RUR, and the fee comes to 20% of the remainder of the sum exceeding this 50,000-ruble limit. The spokesperson for the bank claims the main idea behind this measure is to prevent the people from taking their money back ahead of time en masse. The limitations were imposed on October 14, 2008. The bank’s customers (including those who had placed their applications for money withdrawal

Ural Airlines will once again start operating flights to Paris on December 27, 2008. The company’s first France-bound flight will be a chartered one, but as soon as January 20, 2009, scheduled flights will be operated every Tuesday. The flight will be operated on a modern A 320 plane. These aircraft are quite fuel-efficient, which means the prices are going to be very reasonable, the spokesperson for the airline reports. The tickets for a flight to Paris are already available at the booking offices.

‘We invest the money we get from our customers in various assets, including the stock market’s ones. We always have our assets re-assessed at the end of the year, so it will be clear by then just how much we have been affected by the present crisis. A portion of the investments has been distributed through bank deposits and real estate, so we hope this money will make up for the possible losses on the stock market,’ UMMC Perspektiva Nongovernmental Retirement Fund’s Deputy CEO Sergey Khalatov said to an UrBC reporter. Russian nongovernmental retirement funds actually tend to see securities as

Profit, a company that provides Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) with scrap metal, is about to increase its supply to the enterprise. MMK needs a lot more metal stuffs after switching from the open-hearth process to the electric-furnace steelmaking, so Profit employed a new technological cycle to meet this demand. The project was started in 2004-2005, followed by the launch of a new production facility in 2007 and the introduction of more scrap metal-collecting units in the Russian regions. MMK’s PR Department reports the enterprise was successfully certified for compliance with the

On October 17, 2008, Bank24.ru came up with a new policy on cashing the customers’ deposits in before the end of the deposit period. According to the bank’s call center, in case a customer wants to take out the money before the end of the deposit term, he or she must place an application beforehand and is allowed to withdraw no more than 100,000 RUR. The bank used to charge its customers a commission in case they wanted to take out more than 50,000 RUR. The commission came to 10% of the remainder of the sum exceeding this 50,000-ruble limit. At the same time, one now has to wait longer to get

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank keeps charging the customers who want to cash their deposits before the end of the deposit period a 20% commission. This is charged in case a customer takes out more than 50,000 RUR and comes to 20% of the remainder of the sum exceeding this 50,000-ruble limit. The spokesperson for the bank claims the main idea behind this measure is to prevent the people from taking their money back ahead of time en masse. In fact, a lot of the bank’s customers really did start demanding a cashing of their deposits due to the recent panic that infected the local people for no

Bank Severnaya Kazna keeps imposing limitations on the amount of money a customer can withdraw from one’s deposit before the end of the deposit period. The bank’s press officer reports they still only allow a customer to take out the maximum of 50,000 RUR from one deposit a week. What is more, the application for withdrawing any sum exceeding 10,000 RUR has to be made well in advance. On October 17, 2008, for instance, the appointments were only made for October 21, 2008. Besides, some limitations have also been set on the amount of money one can take off one’s deposit through an ATM; the

‘The drop in the number of investors or the amount of investments in the project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals) is quite possible,’ says Finam Management’s leading expert Dmitriy Baranov. ‘The regional budget’s subsidies might go down, but this project is important for Ural Federal District, so the member regions might ask the federal authorities to allocate more money for its implementation in exchange for a share in the future profit,’ he adds.

SKB-Bank’s BOD Chairman Vladimir Pukhov replied to the earlier address of V.N. Frolov, BOD Chairman of Bank Severnaya Kazna. ‘Dear customers and partners: Bank Severnaya Kazna’s official website featured the Chairman’s address to the customers on October 14, 2008. His message was that the provincial banks had some clear and fair ways of settling money matters with its customers and therefore imposed certain limits on deposits that people want to close before the end of the deposit period. I, on my part, can say that SKB-Bank keeps working as usual and no emergency measures or limits have been

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has increased the number of bank cards it issues by 29% since the beginning of the year, so this now came to 518,466,000. ‘This quick increase in the number of bank cards can be explained by our having a broad subsidiary network and plenty of ATMs in many Russian regions as well as a balanced promotion policy. The bank keeps on introducing additional bank card options and launches new products and services. In addition, we are trying to be in the wake of global trends and so are starting to switch to chip-based MasterCard items with a new

‘Even though Russia’s financial system is struggling with the liquidity crisis, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development carries out all the payment transactions for its business customers speedily and smoothly and in compliance with the existing bank-customer agreements. The scale of our business is in itself a guarantee of reliable and stable operation. Just like before, the standard settlement and cash service agreement provides for commission-free transfer of money into a customer’s account within fifteen minutes of the sum getting in the bank’s correspondent account. The

Ural Airlines reduced the fuel fees for chartered flights the carrier operates to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh due to the jet fuel getting cheaper. As far as Yekaterinburg-Hurghada and Yekaterinburg-Sharm El Sheikh flights are concerned, the fuel fee will drop by 24% and will reach $19.5 per passenger ($29 for A320 and Tu154 M airplanes, $10 for IL 86 aircraft) instead of the former $25.5. In terms of flights that take off in Perm, the fuel fee has gone down by 12.5% and now comes to $28, the airline’s press officer reports. In addition, the company reduced the fees for Yekaterinburg-Antalya

Moscow, 16 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the 2008 year results of the Global Technology and Innovation Research Project, a long-term programme designed to involve leading universities and research centres in the identification of innovative and sustainable applications for aluminium products.љ A joint committee comprising of UC RUSAL, the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and Professor Thomas Graedel from the Yale University, as the independent expert, has selected three of the most promising research projects to