UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region-based companies and organizations (excluding small enterprises) had RUB 27.9m in debt arrears as of December 1, 2019, SverdlovskStat reports. This figure is 2.2%, or RUB 630,000, lower than that for November 1, 2019.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2019. A few of Sberbank’s Ural branch’s outlets faced problems on December 16, 2019 due to a temporary internal system crash. According to the branch’s press service, ‘some of the bank’s outlets really are experiencing a bit of a slowdown.’ ‘This will be fixed very soon. We apologize for the inconvenience our customers might have had to go through, and suggest using other banking options such as Sberbank Online or an ATM,’ Sberbank’s press service’s official statement goes. Some media say certain Yekaterinburg outlets have not merely slowed down but actually

UrBC, Sondrio, December 17, 2019. Alexei Kazantsev from Yekaterinburg has won two gold medals in PSL and parallel giant slalom in the 19th Winter Deaflympics this month. Petr Lebedev, who comes from Yekaterinburg as well, won silver in parallel giant slalom competitions. The 19th Winter Deaflympics opened in Sondrio, Italy, on December 12 and will be closing on December 21. Over 500 sports players from thirty-four different countries are competing in the games. There are 135 athletes on Russia’s national team. The games are held in six different sports: snowboarding, mountain skiing,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2019. The CBR’s Ural branch’s representatives believe the dropping key rate will help make mortgage and business loans more affordable. The Bank of Russia’s Board of Directors made the decision to bring the key rate down by 0.25 b.p., down to 6.25% p.a., on Friday, December 13. This is the fifth time the CBR’s key rate has gone down this year so far. According to the CBR’s forecasts, the current monetary/lending policy will keep the annual inflation rate at 3.5%-4% in 2020; the figures are expected to stay around 4% further on as well. It was announced that,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) won the RETAIL FINANCE AWARDS in Best Retail Bank IT Solution: the bank’s new mobile app proved the best offer among the eleven projects that made it to the final round of the competition, the bank’s press service reports. ‘The new, fully redesigned mobile app got launched in March. The primary goal behind all the changes was to become customer-oriented and take into account the customers’ user experience, needs, and wishes. The result is an honest, good quality product,’ says UBRD’s Retail