The internal rules and policy of Bank VTB 24 have not been approved of by the Federal Financial Market Service of the Russian Federation so as to counteract laundering proceeds from criminal activity as well as terrorist financing.

A Yekaterinburg dweller is about to place a complaint against Alfa-Bank, a local online banking forum states. The person who’s uploaded this piece of news claims that a bank customer was unable to use one of the services offered by Alfa-Bank. ‘The girl had a Cosmopolitan Visa issued for her by Alfa-Bank. The card was delivered with a booklet with the names and addresses of all the companies that offered a discount to customers paying by this card type. This discount bonus actually costs an extra 299 RUR a year; this money is supposed to pay off when the cardholder makes purchases in the

The net loss of Promsvyazbank skyrocketed by 1,347,043 RUR, or 316% in 2009, that is, from 426,277 RUR at the end of 2008 to 1,773,320 RUR in December 2009. In fact, the loss figures reached 3,236,619 RUR in the third quarter of 2009, whereas in the fourth quarter, Promsvyazbank had 78,644 RUR worth of profits. The bank explains the increase in net loss has to do with the need to create possible loss reserves, which is rather costly.

The net profit of AKB Investbank decreased by 40.182 million RUR in the last quarter of 2009. The bank made 34.392 million RUR worth of net profit in the third quarter but actually got 5.79 million RUR worth of net loss in the fourth quarter of the year. The bank says the primary reason for the decrease in profits was the drop in revenues coming from foreign currency operations, including those related to foreign currency revaluation. Also, the bank had to increase the volume of its possible loss reserves.

The net profit of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank declined by 333.541 million RUR, or 50.7% in 2009, that is, from 658.417 million RUR at the end of 2008 down to 324.876 RUR in 2009. The bank reports the drop in profits was caused by the need to set up possible loan loss reserves.

OAO Bank Vyatich’s net profit went down by 3,203,000 RUR, or 43% in 2009. The net profits amounted to 7.429 million RUR in 2008 and only to 4.226 million in 2009. The bank’s profit figures dropped by 718,000 RUR, or by 52% against the third quarter of the year, in the last quarter of 2009 alone. The bank made 660,000 RUR of net profit in October-December 2009. According to Bank Vyatich’s reports, the decrease in net profits last year stemmed from the shrinking banking transactions revenues and increased maintenance expenses. In addition, the bank received smaller advance income tax payments

Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt’s January issue featured the results of a survey aimed at identifying Russia’s best ferrous and non-ferrous metals manufacturers and traders in the second half of 2009. The rating was compiled on the basis of special questionnaires filled in by the metal products customers; the metal market experts’ opinions were taken into account as well. Also, the report writers completed a multi-faceted analysis of the metallurgical enterprises’ performance using the following criteria: - Business development dynamics; - Scope of shipment; - Quality of after-sales service; -

VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation announced it was going to close down Titan Trading House after the corporation’s shareholders had made a decision to this extent. VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation used to own 70% of Titan’s shares; the trading house dealt in the sales of the corporation’s produce.

The net losses of VUZ-Bank (Life Group’s asset) amounted to 262,000 RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009. In the third quarter, the bank’s losses reached as much as 37.61 million RUR. The company explains the decrease in net loss was made possible thanks to improved net interest earnings.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) came up with a production performance report for the last quarter of 2009 and for the year 2009 as a whole. According to TMK’s press service, the company’s shipments kept increasing in the fourth quarter of 2009, which partially made up for the dropping sales in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, the total volume of product shipments to consumers decreased by 13% last year (compared to 2008). The press service reports TMK believes its financial performance in the second half of 2009 to be significantly better than that in the first half of the year

The net losses of Bank Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank) increased by 2,944,317,000 RUR, or 187.13% last year: the bank’s losses amounted to 1,573,449,000 RUR in 2008 and to as much as 4,517,766,000 RUR in 2009. For one, the losses rose by 121.584 million RUR, or 37.2% in the last quarter of 2009 compared with the third quarter’s figure of 205.267 million RUR. Bank Severnaya Kazna explains the increase in losses has to do with the need to set up debt reserves.

The net profit of Ural Financial Industrial Bank (Uralfinprombank) declined by 11.8% in the last quarter of 2009, that is, from 10.28 million RUR in the third quarter to 9.07 million RUR in the fourth quarter of the year. Uralfinprombank reports the smaller profits result from greater personnel and advertising expenses.

‘METRO Cash & Carry management’s attitude towards our trade unions has changed by now. They actually stopped preventing the workers from entering a trade union and appear to relate quite neutrally to this fact now,’ Chairman of Yekaterinburg Trade Networks Trade Union Alexander Brusnitsin said to UrBC. Prior to this change, the trade union representatives used to complain that the company’s top executives were trying to create various obstacles that would make entering a trade union very hard for the workers. Allegedly, they even tried to exert psychological pressure on the employees. At

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin held a meeting of a work team created to support the regional enterprises and organizations’ business activity. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to collecting more taxes into the region’s consolidated budget, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Government reports. For one, the meeting participants discussed the state of events at Vanadium, Kachkanar-based ore mining and processing enterprise, whose profits plunged by nearly ten times in 2009. The enterprise’s Managing Director Mikhail Batuyev said the profits had dropped

A few days ago, Interpol officers detained Alexei Kalinichenko, the man suspected of creating a pyramid scheme and stealing over a billion RUR from 4,000 Russian citizens; he is originally from Yekaterinburg. The news of Kalinichenko’s arrest was announced by Valeriy Gorelykh, the director of Sverdlovsk Region Internal Affairs Administration’s press center. It has been reported that the suspected fraudster has been detained in Italy before; Russia insisted on his extradition, and the Italian court ruled in favor of this demand, whereupon Kalinichenko managed to escape from home arrest. ‘The

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) isn’t going to sell OAO Belon, the energy sector enterprise (MMK currently owns 82.6% of Belon’s shares through Onarbay Enterprises Ltd). ‘MMK has no plans to sell the enterprise and is actually quite interested in its further development. This is part of Belon and MMK’s joint development strategy,’ MMK informed Interfax referring to the statement made by MMK Vice President for Strategic Development and Metallurgy Rafkat Takhautdinov. The misunderstanding apparently occurred when Kommersant reported earlier that Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to hold a session on Bank24.ru vs. UralTransBank on February 10, 2010. The plaintiff insists on being paid 40,031,667 RUR worth of debt resulting from a number of promissory notes (096441, 096638, 096445, and 096640) issued by UralTransBank on July 27, 2009. The notes are to be paid on demand but no earlier than October 27, 2009. What is more, the plaintiff claims some interest should be paid for the period from October 27, 2009 to October 30, 2009 and then further on till the day the court’s ruling has been made. Marketinvest, OOO Estate, and OOO

The shareholders of Deja-Invest decided at a recent extraordinary general meeting in Yekaterinburg to have the company’s General Director Alexander Kolesnikov resign. The authority and powers of the company’s sole executive body were vested with Kontakt Group (the management company) on January 15, 2010.

The investigative authorities of Severouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region are now looking into the causes of UC RUSAL Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) worker’s death. The fatal accident occurred at Kalyinskaya mine on January 15, 2010. The victim was a forty-five-year-old shaft man. The scene of the accident has already been examined by the investigative team; it was detected that on that day the miners were doing some preparatory work and drilled over the mine face; the shaft man was within the ore bunker boundaries, that is, between 1,058 and 1,044 meters below the ground. A rock mass movement

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court will hear the claim laid by the Russian Federation Federal Tax Service’s Yekaterinburg Verhk-Isetskiy district division against Aston Construction Company on January 18, 2010. The plaintiff wants the defendant to be declared bankrupt. The tax authorities claim that Aston hasn’t been able to pay them 953,880 RUR for more than three months now. The plaintiff’s application was placed with the court on August 21, 2009.