The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development raised the interest rates on deposits that have to be opened and topped up through the bank’s ATMs on December 25, 2008. The increase involved the entire range of these deposit types and came to 2% for ruble deposits and to 1% for foreign currency ones. The bank introduced these ATM-linked deposit schemes over a year ago. ‘Our ATMs operate in a very convenient mode, most of the time they are actually available 24/7. The bank’s ATM network comprises more than 270 machines throughout the country and keeps on expanding. This means a customer who

The state authorities report people have stopped taking their savings out of the banks. What is more, they have actually been depositing more money with the banks since the beginning of winter. First Deputy Head of Government Igor Shuvalov announced last week that the Russian banks’ total deposit volume had gone up over December 1-15, 2008. He said the banking system could already boast a certain surplus, with the banks getting more money than giving any out. At the same time, the Central Bank of Russia was reported to announce that most banks had a zero-sum balance sheet as recently as

‘Happy New Year! Happy New Shop!’ These are the words ChTPZ Group has welcomed the New Year’s Eve for the second time this year. Last year, the celebration took place on the premises of the new rider plant (part of the company’s O&G maintenance division). This December, the Group’s workers will be ‘presented’ with a new hi-tech OCTG finishing center built on the site provided by Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant, the Group’s press officer reports. This year’s party is to be attended by the company’s best workers from Chelyabinsk, Pervouralsk, Moscow, Magnitogorsk, and other Russian cities. A

The company’s customers have eaten the contents of 1,550,517 lunch boxes and read 180,000 copies of Ural Airlines Magazine aboard the carrier’s planes since January 1, 2008. In addition, 3,515 bottles of air fresheners, 428 liters of liquid soap, and 1,687,500 wet wipes have been used in flight. As far as the strong drinks offered aboard the plane are concerned, vodka, of which 814 liters have been drunk this year, was the third most popular drink, preceded by cognac, of which 1,045 liters have been consumed altogether. Table wine has definitely been this year’s most wanted strong drink: Ural

Bank Monetniy Dom’s new office opened at 37 Vosmoye Marta St. in Yekaterinburg on December 26, 2008. The ceremony was attended by all of the bank’s management, including Chair of the Supervisory Board Elena Nesterova, as well as the company’s partners and customers. The inspiration behind the introduction of the new office was the bank’s strategy aimed at becoming one of Ural Federal District’s Top 5 in five years. This is Bank Monetniy Dom’s 13th office located in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region and the first one launched under the new brand. ‘We feel it’s really important to set up more

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) trade union committee designed a set of measures aimed at additional social protection of the company’s employees. According to the committee’s Chairman Alexander Derunov, the collective agreement signed by the plant’s management and the trade union and employed in 2006-2008 has been renewed for the year 2009 as well. The important thing is that this agreement provides for a whole range of socially important provisos. For one, the benefits package the metallurgists get under this agreement has remained the same. At the same time, some of the addenda