Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch handled over $145m worth of foreign currency purchase and sale transactions in January 2009; this exceeded the figures for January 2008 by 2.5 times.

‘The foreign currency in cash is enjoying enormous demand right now; still, our customers can sell or buy a lot of dollars or euros in our seven Yekaterinburg-based offices with absolutely no hassle. What is more, we can offer them the so-called individualized (and more attractive) exchange rates,’ says Sberbank’s Ural branch’s Currency Transactions Director Sergey Bobryashov.

In fact, Sberbank’s Ural branch can sell to or buy from its customers eleven kinds of foreign currency, that is, U.S. dollars, euros, the UK pounds sterling, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, Check korunas, Swedish kronas, Ukrainian hryvnias, Chinese Renminbi yuans, Japanese yens, and Kazakh tenge. Apart from buying or selling foreign currency, one can also break one’s foreign currency bills, have the worn-out or damaged banknotes replaced, and get the dubious banknotes tested for authenticity.