UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2019. Starting July 1, a new universal upper limit on the amount of debt one can have on loans with the repayment period of under 1 year comes into effect in Russia. Fines, loan interest, and other payments relating to this loan type must not exceed the principal debt amount itself by more than two times, the Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s PR Department reports. If someone takes out a loan for RUB 15,000, for example, they will have to pay back no more than RUB 45,000 (RUB 15,000 would be the principal debt amount and RUB 30,000 would come from fines and

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 28, 2019. ChelPipe Group started a transformation program for META Group, its scrap metal division. Switching to a customer-oriented, digital technology-based business model will enhance the company’s business efficiency and make it one of Russia’s top three scrap metal enterprises. According to the Group’s press service, the program will get fully implemented by 2023 and will consist of two different stages. In 2019-2021, an objective-based business process structure will get developed, and IT solutions will get introduced to control and manage the scrap metal

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 28, 2019. MMK Group’s partner Metallurg Charity Foundation took part in the 3d Regions’ Social Innovations Forum in Moscow; the event got coordinated by Russia’s Federation Council’s Federal Assembly and Moscow Government. The role national projects play in the social sector’s innovative development was the key topic on the event’s agenda. The forum gathered together three hundred delegates from eighty-five Russian federal constituencies: government officials, members of socially oriented non-profit organizations, business community representatives, researchers,

UrBC, Moscow, June 28, 2019. MegaFon and BCS Broker recently launched a mobile investment app called MegaFon Investment. Thanks to the new tech solutions and the telecom company’s resources, customers can now invest from anywhere in the world, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘The new app will appeal to both experienced traders and beginner investors. Thanks to MegaFon Investment, the mobile app users can now deal in securities or foreign currency trading at Moscow’s and Saint Petersburg’s stock exchanges: you need to sign into the app and open a brokerage account online, which will only take

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2019. Yekaterinburg came third in the rating of Russian cities with the greatest number of cars: as of January 1, 2019, there were 462,000 passenger vehicles registered in Yekaterinburg, Autostat reports. Moscow is No.1 in the rating of the country’s top 25 automobile cities with its 3.7 million automobiles. Saint Petersburg, with its 1.75 million units, comes second. Novosibirsk (445,000 units), Samara (394,000), Kazan (374,000), Nizhniy Novgorod (361,000), Krasnodar (341,000), Chelyabinsk (331,000), and Voronezh (330,000) follow Yekaterinburg in the rating.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2019. The number of consumer loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based applicants in May 2019 dropped by 12.5% against May 2018, that is, from 50,900 down to 44,500, the National Credit History Bureau reports. This was the most noticeable drop among the country’s top thirty consumer lending markets (broken down by federal constituencies). Khabarovsk Territory (a decrease of 10.8%), Udmurtia (a 10.7% drop), Altay Territory (-7.6%), and Krasnodar Territory (-6.3%) come next. In Russia on the whole, the number of newly issued consumer loans declined by 3.3% in May

UrBC, Moscow, June 27, 2019. MegaFon is now getting postal terminals and online store pick-up points installed at its retail outlets. Customers based in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk will be the first to have the opportunity of picking up their parcels at MegaFon stores, the telecom company’s press service reports. PickPoint terminal chain will act as one of MegaFon’s partners in the project, providing up to 7,500 retail stores and market places (including AliExpress) with access to pick-up points at MegaFon’s stores. MegaFon intends to launch the terminals at all of its flagship stores

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) decided on Mikhail Prilepov as the new head of the Mid-Urals division. According to the bank’s press service, the newly appointed executive will primarily be in charge of actualizing the division’s business potential and raising profits through retail and business customer retention. ‘The key objective of our Happy Customer strategy is to improve customer service. This is why, in my work, I intend to focus on making sure everyone who comes to the bank gets custom-made treatment,’ Prilepov says. The

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 27, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) managers completed a six-month special course on talent development offered by the Stockholm School of Economics through Personal In-Company Cadre Training Center. The training program was a bespoke course designed specially for the MMK management. According to MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department, the Stockholm School of Economics is one of the world’s best-reputed learning venues and a business school leader on the global market. MMK has been collaborating with the school for some years now, even

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2019. You can now apply for SKB-Bank’s credit card and place an order for the card delivery online, the bank’s press service reports. ‘Applying for a credit card is very easy: you submit your application on the bank’s website and select ‘Courier delivery service’. Once your application has been processed and approved, you only need to coordinate the time and place with the courier delivery operator. The card and the papers will get delivered to you then,’ the press service says. The courier delivery service is available in Yekaterinburg and within 90 km of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2019. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev extended the food embargo involving imports from a number of countries through December 31, 2020. The announcement can now be seen at Russia’s official legal information portal. According to the latest version of the paper, the words ‘through December 31, 2019’ have been replaced with ‘through December 31, 2020’. Now the EU, United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and a number of other countries imposed a series of sanctions on Russia in March 2014, following the Ukrainian developments. Then, on August 6,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 26, 2019. METEC International Metallurgical Trade Fair opens in Düsseldorf today. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the event, the company’s Information & PR Department reports. Visitors coming to MMK’s stand will be able to see a wide range of produce and tech solutions offered by one of Russia’s largest metallurgical companies. Following a large-scale renovation and upgrades project implemented in the last few years, MMK now makes up-to-date, competitive, innovative produce: high-margin heavy plates for the oil and gas sector and the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 26, 2019. Following a temporary ban on any flights from Russia to Georgia, Ural Airlines suggest that customers with plane tickets to Georgian locations that were to have been operated on July 8 and later exchange them for a ticket for any other scheduled flight Ural Airlines operate within Russia and the CIS member states — at no extra cost, the air carrier’s press service says. ‘Just because flights to Georgia have been cancelled doesn’t mean you have to give up on a vacation. Ural Airlines suggest you consider some other destinations to fly to for your

UrBC, Moscow, June 26, 2019. Every other Russian household currently has a loan of some sort, and more than 10% of these households have to direct more than a half of their monthly income to loan repayment, the National Association of Professional Collection Agencies (NAPCA)’s press service reports. ‘Unfortunately, the current situation means there is a risk that certain Russian families with a loan burden will end up with overdue debt. The overdue debt amount comes to RUB 70,000-RUB 80,000 on average at the moment. Based on our data, some 47% of households say they cannot keep repaying the

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 26, 2019. The average micro-loan amount issued on Chelyabinsk Region market in the first quarter of 2019 rose by 1.8% against one year earlier and came to RUB 6,778 (against RUB 6,656 in the first quarter of 2018), the National Credit History Bureau’s press service reports. According to the 3,000 micro-financing organizations and consumer lending co-operatives that provide their statistics for the bureau, the average micro-loan amount remained nearly the same in the first quarter of 2019 as in the first quarter of 2018, only going up slightly (by 1.4%) and reaching RUB

UrBC, Moscow, June 26, 2019. The Russians’ demand for foreign currency bills rose by 8% in April 2019 compared with March 2019 and amounted to $4.8bn altogether, TASS refers to the Bank of Russia Bulletin as stating. According to the CBR, the private customers’ demand for the U.S. dollars rose by 3% in April 2019 against March 2019 and amounted to $2.9bn all in all; the demand for Euro banknotes rose by 16% and amounted to the equivalent of $1.8bn. The share of U.S. dollars in the overall amount of foreign cash Russians have been buying thus dropped by 3% (down to 60%) and the share of the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 25, 2019. A digital system to monitor the availability of railcars has been launched at two sheet-rolling departments at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) this month. The system will help track any rolling stock problems and will enhance the efficiency of the shipment process greatly. According to MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department, the sheet-rolling departments now have video surveillance equipment, railcar number recognition software, and appliances to control the direction of the railcars and the amount of cargo inside. The new system has

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2019. EVRAZ Consolidated West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK) is hosting the 4th EVRAZ WorldSkills blue-collar job championship on June 24-27. A professional skills contest is taking place at the plant at the same time, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. More than three hundred skilled workers and experts from six large industrial enterprises (EVRAZ Consolidated West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant, EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant, Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise, Raspadskaya Coal Company, EVRAZ

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 25, 2019. The first batch of pipes got delivered from ChelPipe Group’s warehouse to NLMK Group this month. The pipes made at the Group’s member enterprises Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) will get used for the major reconstruction of a blast furnace at Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), NLMK Group’s primary production site. According to ChelPipe Group’s press service, NLMK placed an order for a number of cold-deformed, hot-rolled, and stainless steel pipes (diameter: 14 mm to 426 mm; layer thickness: 2 mm to 56 mm). Based on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2019. EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) started making several new types of section-shaped rolled metal goods this year, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center’s PR Department reports. The plant’s beam-making department recently manufactured its first batch of new HE 200 beams according to EN 10365-2017; the plant’s rail- and beam-making department made its first batch of No.20 equal leg angle according to GOST 8509-93. HE 200 beams are a variety of H-beams used for making support structures for high-rise buildings. EVRAZ NTMK can