One accident occurred at the local railways between November 28, 2008 and December 5, 2008, the spokesperson for the Federal Transport Surveillance Service reports. A group of eight loaded wagons that had been detached and left unhooked on the connecting line started running off the track and collided with an oil locomotive at Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ Nizhneserginskaya station at 2.30 PM on December 3, 2008. The shunting master, who was located in the front of the group, was hurt badly and died in hospital. The case is currently under investigation.

‘URSA Bank and MDM-Bank’s principal shareholders talk the same language and aim to make the new holding Russia’s leading private bank. This is why coming to an agreement was easy enough. It became clear early in the negotiation process that our goals coincide,’ URSA Bank’s BOD Chairman Igor Kim announced at a press conference in Novosibirsk. Igor Kim feels this is an unprecedented deal scale-wise. ‘This is something yet unique to Russia’s banking system. The impact made by the current crisis can be seen as not being very significant, since the merger talks started as early as a year ago, and

According to Standard & Poor's, Sverdlovsk Region is currently one of Russia’s most industrially advanced regions (its foreign currency liability rating is ВВВ+/Negative/А-2; its national currency liability rating is А-/Negative/А-2; its national scale rating is ruAAA). ‘The rating growth is hindered by the lack of flexibility and predictability of the budgetary expenses and revenues. Then, the tax revenues might drop due to the slowing down of the economic growth rate over the next few years and the remaining pressure of the current expenditures and the dire need for capital

SKB-Bank offered its customers a new deposit type known as Patriot. The uniqueness of the new product lies in the combination of great profitability with a shorter than usual deposit period, the bank’s press officer reports. The deposit period only comes to a swift one hundred days, while the annual interest rate comes to 16.01% for ruble deposits. One has to deposit at least 10,000 RUR, $300, or ?300 (for foreign currency deposits, the interest rates come to 10% a year). In addition, all of SKB-Bank’s customers who open the Patriot deposit type at the bank will get a chance to win UAZ

Bank24.ru got a new set of shareholders in the early antemeridian hours of December 5, 2008, the bank’s official website reports. 20% of shares now belong to Probusinessbank, 19.565% of shares are now owned by Probusinessbank’s IT Director Alexei Pirogov, 19.969% of shares belong to Probusinessbank’s Vice President for Credit Risks Yaroslav Alekseev, 20% belong to Porbusinessbank’s Vice President Sergey Letunov, and the remaining 20% belong to Porbusinessbank’s Vice President Konstantin Martemyanov. Bank24.ru’s website says the agreement to this extent was signed by Deposit Insurance Agency,