UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) joined the FinTech Association and will now work on the association’s projects and contribute to research together with other large member banks. There are currently some twenty major finance, tech, and telecommunications companies active within the association. ‘FinTech’s innovative technological solutions will allow the national finance market undergo a major transformation and achieve a breakthrough improvement in the quality of its finance services; these services will also grow more affordable and

UrBC, Moscow, May 4, 2018. The Bank of Russia is going to work to close down fake World Cup ticket-selling websites this year, the regulatory body’s official site states. ‘The Bank of Russia and the FIFA agreed to cooperate, with the FIFA directing any data about fake ticket-selling sites to the bank’s FinCERT (the center for monitoring of and reacting to cyber attacks in the finance sector). FinCERT will then be in charge of having these websites blocked,’ the website states. Russia’s Central Bank was authorized to have cyber frauds blocked at the end of 2016. The bank has brought down 25

UrBC, Moscow, May 4, 2018. The Russian Government drew up a list of ten produce categories that manufacturers must now provide with special markings; the deadlines for introducing the markings have also been set; the list and the dates are now available on the Cabinet’s website. ‘The list of ten produce categories that need to have special markings, and the deadlines for introducing the markings, have both been confirmed. The products in question are tobacco items, perfumes, various types of clothing, footwear, cameras, and some other goods. The goal is to reduce the amount of counterfeited

UrBC, Moscow, May 4, 2018. 76% of Russians said they had to look for ways to cut down on their spending in March 2018, Romir’s research findings indicate. The share of Russians who have to scrape their living went down by 6% in March 2018 compared with one year earlier, when the future was 82%. According to Romir’s research, they had to cut back on spending in every single consumer category. Mostly, people say they can’t afford to spend freely at supermarkets: 17% of respondents admitted they now must spend less on food. 12% of those surveyed said they couldn’t afford a vacation, and 9% had

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2018. 27.6% of Sverdlovsk Region’s formally unemployed haven’t been able to find a job for over a year, Sverdlovskstat reports. ‘According to a recent workforce research, it took our unemployed 7.1 months on average to find a new place of employment in the first quarter of the year. 53.5% of respondents were out of jobs for one to six months, and 27.6% remained unemployed for more than one year,’ the research findings indicate. 25,700 people registered with employment agencies as being out of jobs by the end of March 2018. This amounts to 1.2% of the local

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 3, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) directed RUR 679.7m RUR to job safety last year, the company press service reports. A look into the list of job safety events the plant coordinated last year reveals that all the measures were taken in full accordance with the current national legislation, normative acts, MMK’s local regulations, and the plant’s collective agreement. The plant’s industrial and job safety management system got certified for compliance with the international standard OHSAS 18001:2007 at the time. The re-certification procedure took place

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2018. RSG-Akademicheskoye, the developer operating in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy, is coordinating a tender to select a contractor for two apartment buildings and an underground parking lot in Quarter 9, the developer’s press service reports. The tender is for a general contractor agreement to put up the above-the-ground part of Buildings 9.4.1 and 9.4.2 and to complete the under-the-ground part of the buildings and to build the underground parking lot 9.4.01/9.4 in Quarter 9 in District Akademicheskiy, Yekaterinburg. The contractor will also be in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering their customers a springtime discount on their Samara-Tel Aviv flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. A 7% discount is offered if you book your flight between April 28 and May 20, 2018; the flights themselves will be operated between April 28 and June 30, 2018. The tickets are already on offer. ‘Tel Aviv, the city that never sleeps, is one the best club capitals of the world. Israel enjoys great weather almost all the year round, so you can go to a beach, do some sightseeing, shop at farmers’ markets, and go to clubs,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2018. Shareholders of Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) voted in the course of the annual general meeting in favor of paying RUR 11.56 per share in last year’s dividends, the company reports. RUR 5.46bn will get directed to dividend payments all in all. This is ChelPipe’s entire net profit for the year 2017 (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), as well as a portion of previous years’ net profits. The shareholders also elected a new Board of Directors: Alexander Fedorov, Boris Kovalenkov, Andrei Komarov, Oleg Kustikov, Dina

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 3, 2018. Director of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) E-Business Department Vadim Belopolsky won bronze in the IT Leader 2018 Award challenge, the bank’s press service reports. IT Leader Award was established in 2002 in order to keep the professional community in the know of all the changes taking place in the new digital era and of the most successful IT projects. Some three hundred managers and IT directors working for both Russian and international companies compete for the award every year. The winners get chosen based on the innovative