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