Sberbank’s Ural branch recently made more options available via its ATMs and self-service devices located within Sverdlovsk Region. For one, the bank’s private borrowers can now make their loan payments using an ATM or an information & transaction terminal in any city in the region, regardless of where the loan was obtained. This is naturally much more convenient than having to use the ATMs of only the same subsidiary where the sum was originally borrowed, as the case had been before (Yekaterinburg used to be the only exception to this rule.). ‘The new service means the bank’s customers

‘Our top priority at the moment is maintaining operational stability and rendering top quality service to our customers. This comprises cash and settlement services and all the other products offered to entities,’ Bank Monetniy Dom’s Deputy Chair of the Board Galina Maltseva said to an UrBC reporter. ‘As the currently troubled economy gradually gets back to normal, we are planning on expanding the range of our products, mainly through more extensive lending, and reaching the ante-crisis level,’ she added. ‘Strange as it may seem, a crisis is a good time for finding new customers. A lot of

Standard & Poor's, the international rating agency, had to demote the Russian Gazprombank’s counterparty’s long-term and short-term credit ratings from BBB-/A-3 to ВВ+/В; the Rating Outlook dropped to Negative. At the same time, Gazprombank’s national scale rating was affirmed at ruAA+. ‘This rating demotion has to do with the bank’s weakened solvency through lower capitalization and a dramatic decrease in profits after a recent massive loss on trading transactions. What is more, the Russian economy on the whole has slowed down recently. Then, the risk level was enhanced by the

The income taxation mechanism for ruble deposits was changed on January 1, 2009. Most of the interest rates offered on ruble deposits won’t be liable to taxation any longer and the income tax would only be charged if the annual interest rate on the deposit exceeds the Bank of Russia’s refinancing rate by 5%. As for the refinancing rate, this comes to 13% at the moment, so any ruble deposit with annual interest rate of less than 18% isn’t to be taxed at all. ‘At the same time, the income taxation mechanisms for foreign currency deposits will remain the same. As for the ruble ones, the

The district’s public prosecution authorities for transport issues looked into the results of their performance in 2008. ‘In case of revealed arrears of wages, our officials took steps to make sure the money is paid. A lot of claims (totaling to 1.61 million RUR) were placed with the local courts, and we managed to win all of these cases,’ the spokesperson for the public prosecution authorities for transport issues says. ‘Last October, we checked the compliance of Sverdlovsk Region Railways and South Ural Railways with the security regulations related to transportation of hazardous freight.