Banks operating in Sverdlovsk Region keep infringing upon their customers’ rights, Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights and well-being watchdog) Sergey Kuzmin announced at a press conference. We believe that, among other factors, the reason for this is that people have grown more aware of their rights. They know what the violations consist in and they know where to apply,’ Kuzmin explained. There is virtually not a single bank in the region that wasn’t found guilty of this or that infringement. Rospotrebnadzor has a black list of banks that infringe

Euroset intends to stop managing the mono-brand Vertu mobile phone boutiques, Vedomosti refers to Euroset President Alexander Malis and the newspaper’s own sources as saying. It has been reported that the decision was caused by the fact that the luxury phones market is stagnating at the moment, as the well-to-do customers opt for the more functional smartphones. Euroset opened its first mono-brand Vertu boutique in 2004 and currently runs three shops. Seven more boutiques are managed by Vertu’s exclusive German distributor Wital. The latter introduced four boutiques in Russia over the last

Buying Ural Airlines’ tickets abroad is now much easier. On September 15, 2011, the air carrier joined the BSP IATA system in Israel, so passengers can now book and buy tickets for any of Ural Airlines’ flights in any booking office in Israel, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines offers direct flights from Yekaterinburg to Tel-Aviv every Wednesday. The company has interline agreements with the Israeli carriers El Al and Israir, which means transit passengers can buy a single ticket for all the flights, coordinate convenient connections, and travel without having to worry about

BNP Paribas Vostok, the daughter enterprise of one of Europe’s largest banks BNP Paribas, is about to strike a deal with Sberbank and so is closing all the business directions except for express loans, Banki.ru reports. It has been reported to Marker that the bank suggests its customers withdraw their deposits before the end of their term, by October 1, 2011. What is more, BNP Paribas is rumored to be planning to close down most of its outlets before the end of the year. Since last week, it has become impossible to open or to top up an existing deposit at the bank. Other services like opening

Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin is expected to sign Yekaterinburg’s application for the World Universal Exhibition Expo 2020 during the 10th International Investment Forum Sochi 2011 this Friday, September 16, 2011. Now Russian President Dmitri Medvedev decided that it should be Yekaterinburg that will become Russia’s candidate city for hosting Expo 2020. The Urals’ capital has already witnessed plenty of major international events. Yekaterinburg hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRIC summits in 2009 and was chosen to host the Russian-German summit last year.