UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. ‘If liabilities keep increasing in value, the cost of loans will keep rising as well. The way I feel it, banks will choose a different strategy. Rather than launching a drastic rise in interest rates, they will simply set limits on their loans. So, we are going to see a dramatic drop in the lending portfolio growth dynamics due to these limitations. There will also be a small increase in the interest rates, a very careful one, since the banks have learned from their past experience that this could lead to trouble,’ says MDM Bank’s Chairman Oleg Vyugin at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) had its premium threaded joint casings ТМК FMC inserted in the well-site of Yuzhno-Priobskoye deposit for Gazrpom Neft. The insertion operations were assisted by experts from TMK Premium Service. Inserted in the well-site of Yuzhno-Priobskoye deposit was a production casing of 276 TMK FMC casings produced by Taganrog Metallurgical Plant. This was the first time TMK Premium Service rendered such services to Gazprom Neft.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. VUZ-Bank recently introduced a new design for its bank cards, to be used on MasterCard Standard cards. The main theme of the new design is the fruit one. The new bank card, featuring oranges, complements the already existing plastic debit cards offered within the Life Classic range that feature nature themes like Fire, Green Leaves, and Raindrops and can be used as a universal legal tender as well as to take money out of ATMs, pay through online terminals, and make purchases over the phone and on the Internet.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Sverdlovsk Region Railways (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) handled 92.7m tons of shipments in nine months of 2011, which was 3.4% more than in nine months of 2010. According to the data available, the company shipped 21.6m tons of oil (an 8.8% increase against last year), 9.5m tons of ferrous metal ore (a 7.1% increase against last year), 6m tons of non-ferrous metal ore (a 0.4% drop), 1.9m tons of cement (an increase of 10.4%), 15.7m tons of building materials (plus 6.5%), 1.1m tons of coke (an increase of 12.9%), 900,000 tons of stone coal (plus

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin signed a decree on setting up a non-profit organization called EXPO 2020 Application Committee. Now it was announced in early August that Yekaterinburg was chosen as the city that will compete with other world cities for the right to host the event. According to the decree adopted by the government, the organization will be in charge of preparing and coordinating all the events related to Yekaterinburg applying as a candidate for hosting the world exhibition and to submitting the application portfolio to the

Intercos-IV (a member of MMK Group) announced some personnel changes. Roman Gan was appointed the company’s CEO; he used to be employed as the plant manager at the car parts manufacturer Benteler Automotive and the midget car manufacturer Sollers Naberezhnye Chelny prior to this appointment. Former CEO and one of Intercos-IV founders Timur Shoshtayev is going to be Counselor to Mr. Gan. ‘These managerial changes fit within MMK Group’s strategy targeted at meeting the needs of the leading car manufacturers that form an auto cluster in Russia’s North-Western region. We are now reaching the