Ural Airlines held its third annual contest (called Our Wings Through Media’s Eyes) involving the Ural Federal District’s leading mass media agents. The competitors presented this year’s essays, articles, and TV or radio features on civil aviation where the airline’s brand had been mentioned. UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics won the first prize in the Great Professionalism in Ural Airline’s Activity’s E-Coverage category. The first prizes in the other categories were awarded to Expert-Ural magazine, Echo Moskvy-Yekaterinburg radio station, and Ermak, the TV Company.

‘The price of gold determined by the Central Bank’s rate has increased by 12% since our Gold Deposit was first offered to customers. This means that the first prize grows more and more substantial not only because of increasingly more companies taking part in the offer, but also because of gold growing more expensive,’ the spokesperson for the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development said to an UrBC reporter. The sum of the prize is calculated by multiplying the number of businesses opening an account at the bank before December 29, 2008 and the price of gold on this last day of the

SKB-Bank’s deposit volume rose by 121 million RUR in just one day on December 24, 2008. ‘The bank’s latest deposit offer known as Patriot definitely enjoys the greatest popularity. The deposit was introduced at the beginning of December, and our customers have already deposited 1.375 billion RUR with us using this deposit type,’ the bank’s press officer reports. The minimum amount of money one has to deposit comes to 10,000 RUR; the deposit period lasts 100 days, with the annual interest rate coming to 16.01%. What is more, foreign currency deposits are available as well, and UAZ Patriot, the

Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg’s passenger turnover is expected to come to more than 2.55 million RUR in 2008, which would exceed the figures for 2007 by 8.8%, the airport’s press officer reports. The airport’s cargo turnover also rose by 3.3% against a year earlier. At the same time, these figures actually indicate a decrease in the airport’s performance, since Koltsovo Airport’s passenger turnover came to 2.34 million people in 2007, which was 32.9% better than in 2006. The airport’s management explains this dampened turnover growth has to do with the economic troubles in Russia and the

RusRating promoted Yekaterinburg-based Bank Severnaya Kazna’s credit rating from BB- to BB+, with Indefinite rating outlook. ‘This rating promotion stems from the bank’s being acquired by a new, financially strong majority stockholder (Alfa-Bank), which definitely supports the troubled bank’s finances,’ says RusRating’s leading analyst Elena Nikolaenko. ‘In addition, the bank was aided by the government through credit resources. Apart from being supported by the state and the strong proprietor, the bank can also boast a stable position on the regional market. Nevertheless, the bank’s

The Profile magazine’s experts looked into the Russian banks’ performance in January-October 2008 and came up with their list of the country’s Top 200 banks, rated in accordance with their net asset volume as of November 1, 2008. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the 59th position in the ranking. ‘The bank, with its 49.77 billion RUR worth of assets, left all the other provincial banks behind. The bank’s experts believe its impressive financial base is a great advantage on the market at the moment,’ the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development reports. ‘It’s hard

Yekaterinburg dwellers willing to have their rubles exchanged for euros find themselves having to pay at least 40 RUR per euro at the moment; a number of local banks even sell the euro at 41 RUR apiece; these are: Uralfinprombank; Industrial and Trade Bank (PROMTORGBANK); Mega Bank; Bank Soyuz; Bank Vyatich; Baltiyskiy Bank. The U.S. dollar now costs at least 28.75 RUR apiece, with Bank Vyatich selling this currency at 30 RUR apiece. In the meantime, the official dollar and euro rates have been determined by the Bank of Russia t 28.3359 RUR and 39.6674 RUR, respectively.

‘SKB-Bank’s new Patriot deposit was introduced as recently as two weeks ago (on December 8, 2008), but it has already proved extremely popular with customers. ‘1.09 billion RUR worth of deposits has been attracted in just a fortnight,’ the bank’s press officer reports. This deposit offer is unique in that it combines great profitability with a short deposit period: the latter only comes to 100 days. One has to deposit at least 10,000 RUR, with the annual interest rate coming to 16.01%. One can also open a foreign currency deposit. What is more, UAZ Patriot, the off-road vehicle, will be

URSA Bank’s Ural branch increased the interest rate offered on private customers’ ruble deposits on December 18, 2008. The bank’s deposit type range now varies from deposits valid for 31 days to those valid for 3 years (1,116 days). At the moment, the maximum interest rate on Savings ruble deposit comes to 15% a year; the maximum rate offered on The Magnificent Seven, Special, and Retirement Plus deposits comes to 13% a year. The actual rate depends on the amount of money in the deposit and on the deposit period chosen by the customer. ‘We raised the interest rates on ruble deposits in order

About a half of previously approved projects might not get the promised financing from the Investment Fund until 2010, the Ministry of Economic Development’s Investment Policy Director Dmitriy Levchenkov reports. ‘We have been considering postponing the financial aid to some of the projects from 2009 to 2010. About ten projects might be involved in this change altogether,’ he said. One of these projects is the one on the industrial development of the Urals’ north (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals). This means no money might be provided for carrying out an expert examination or

‘The prices for tours offered to foreign visitors who’d like to visit Yekaterinburg in April and May 2009 haven’t been even determined yet, even though our partners abroad keep asking for the price list. No European firm would ever sell a tour without a certain price, so this leads to our losing a lot of customers from Germany,’ Sputnik Yekaterinburg International Travel Agency’s Regional Travel Director Alla Galaktionova said to an UrBC reporter. ‘As far as this year is concerned, it was Germany that the lion’s share of foreign travelers arrived from in Yekaterinburg in January-September

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch issued its 3,000,000th bank card recently. ‘This is a major event for our bank, since we managed to reach this record extremely rapidly: our 2,000,000th cardholder was congratulated on getting this very special card as recently as one year ago. Setting such records is a pleasure we are always eager to share with our customers,’ Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch’s Bank Card Management Director Svetlana Skorinova said to their happy 3,000,000th cardholder. In fact, every other family living in the Urals is using Sberbank’s cards at the moment, with over 3,000

‘The share of non-core assets that our newly bought banks used to run is insignificant on our Group’s scale. So the better part of these bank’s assets is quite manageable. The thing is, a number of their management’s mistakes led to their inability to promptly react to the dramatic deposit outflow,’ Probusinessbank’s President Sergey Leontiev said in the course of his interview to Kommersant. Probusinessbank (aided by the Deposit Insurance Agency, the state-run corporation) acquired Gazenergobank and Bank24.ru that had experienced grave liquidity problems. ‘Firstly, the banks’ management did

Standard & Poor’s, the international rating agency, demoted Alfa Bank’s contractor’s long-term credit rating from BB to BB-, while Alfa Bank’s national scale rating was decreased from ruAA to ruAA-. The bank’s long-term rating was affirmed at B, with Stable rating outlook. ‘This drop has to do with the Russian economy and the banking sector’s systemic risks that have affected Alfa Bank’s business and prospects somewhat badly. For one, the bank’s asset quality, resource base, and capitalization got worse, causing the business’s profitability to decrease,’ says Standard & Poor’s analyst

Ural Airlines came up with an updated website version to mark the carrier’s 65th anniversary. The Internet address has remained the same (www.uralairlines.com), but the design and the structure of the website underwent dramatic improvements. The decision to go through with the site update was taken after a marketing research carried out among the passengers in the spring. The most important sections are now available right on the main page; these are ticket booking and delivery, additional services like booking a taxi or special meals and hotel reservations. Some other essential pieces of

‘We do not intend to help any other bank recover financially. This is rather hard and not always expedient, since the ‘illness’ tends to be catchy,’ Uraltransbank’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Valery Zavodov announced in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg on December 22, 2008. At the same time, the executive did admit Uraltransbank might actually acquire some bank. ‘The money obtained from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Foreign Trade Bank (VEB) will be directed to real sector lending. We are even prepared to offer loans to small and medium-scale

The Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko met with Ural Federal District’s Governors to discuss the way the global financial crisis has affected the district’s socioeconomic development. ‘The banking business is now back on the track, with most banks operating as usual. Their performance indicators, however, are far from the ante-crisis status quo. As far as private customers are concerned, we can see that people no longer cash in and close their deposits, while getting a loan is becoming increasingly harder for a private

‘In case the time for your monthly loan payment falls on January1-10, 2009 (the official bank holiday recess), the deadline is put off until January 11, 2008. Also, if you really feel like paying early, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development suggests that you should use one of the bank’s cash-in ATMs that will be operating during the first days of the year 2009. To do this, you have to find out what the payment sum is, then choose the Additional Services heading on the ATM display, press Loans, then Debt Under Credit. Likewise, you can make your payments in the bank’s offices on

Investtrade Bank’s Board of Directors decided to close down its Yekaterinburg representation. The proposal was accepted by a unanimous vote.

The members of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Board of Directors decided to give up on their remuneration starting January 1, 2009. This decision will be valid through the entire term of their office. MMK’s BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov is reported to say that the decision stems from the need to cut down on the company’s expenses at the difficult time of the global financial and economic crisis. The executive explains that the BOD members showed a lot of understanding and gave up on their remuneration voluntarily. The company’s Board of Directors members are: MMK Management