Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Board of Directors Viktor Rashnikov took part in the governmental committee’s meeting devoted to the Russian metallurgical industry’s development. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to the metallurgical sector’s post-recession development, the current investment programs, and the ways to increase demand for metal products on the construction and machine-building markets. Viktor Rashnikov observed that stimulating demand within the metal goods-consuming industries

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court refused to meet the demands of AlfaStrakhovaniye and declare the decision of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service invalid, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division ruled on August 18, 2009 that Bank24.ru and three insurers, Uveren.ru, Guta-Strakhovaniye, and AlfaStrakhovaniye, violated Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Competition Protection Act. The companies were found guilty of an administrative offense as stated in Article 14.31 of the Administrative Offense Code. The division

‘The handling of the case involving L’Etoile (suspected of sending out text messages with advertisements without the phone number users’ written assent) was postponed because we were not provided with all the necessary documents relevant to the case,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Marina Yusupova informed UrBC. Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service is looking into the case of OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile cosmetics chain store). The company is suspected of violating Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act.

Following Bank Severnaya Kazna’s financial recovery procedure, only 28.57% of the bank’s business customers got transferred to Alfa-Bank, the new owner. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna had about 21,000 active business customers, of whom approximately 6,000 joined Alfa-Bank,’ Alfa-Bank’s Regional Business Customer Development Director Mikhail Povaliy said in the course of an online conference broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. When asked about the number of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s e-customers at the start of the financial recovery procedure, however, Alfa-Bank’s top executive seemed at a loss.

OAO Alfa-Bank had to close down five offices of Bank Severnaya Kazna in the course of the financial recovery procedure the latter needed, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Roman Vitkovskiy said in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. The conference was broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna used to have thirty-eight offices throughout Russia. Five of them stopped operating, and so did one of Alfa-Bank’s own offices. The remaining outlets are now used by both banks to make sure customers can get serviced in the

Over 24,000 business customers of Bank Severnaya Kazna refused to get transferred to Alfa-Bank. Alfa-Bank’s managers report that Bank Severnaya Kazna, which Alfa-Bank bought about fourteen months ago, used to have 30,000 business customers, of whom only 5,626 agreed to carry on with the new owner. ‘About 30,000 legal entities used the services of Bank Severnaya Kazna. Some 22,000 of them were active, that is, they performed at least one transaction a month. 5,626 business customers moved to Alfa-Bank by December 31, 2009, with over 1.556 billion RUR in their accounts. Ninety-four business