Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) performed a series of unscheduled inspections of local enterprises. As a result, plenty of environmental offenses were detected. For one, Baronskoye Mining failed to eliminate one of the three subsoil use regulation violations and therefore had a 3,000-ruble mine imposed on it, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor says. UAZ-SUAL turned out to have violated two regulations and was ordered to improve on the situation. The inspection of Uraltransmash (carried out upon the

Rus-Rating raised URSA Bank’s credit rating from BB+, Indefinite Rating Outlook, to BBB-, Stable Rating Outlook. The agency reports the Russian banks switched to the more conservative lending policies as early as the middle of 2008, as the western markets kept struggling with the economic downfall and it was quite obvious that the global problems were bound to affect the domestic market. ‘Most Russian banks (including URSA Bank) are trying to make their resource base less dependent upon the foreign loans and introducing greater interest rates on the home loan markets as well as growing

The management of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Magnitogorsk branch (the asset of Alfa-Bank at the moment) has recently made 78 people redundant, Chelyabinsk Region Labor and Employment division reported to UrBC. In the meantime, the local office was closed for repairs on February 17, 2009.

Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank is not planning on acquiring Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank, the company’s Deputy PR Director Vitaliy Saprykin was reported as saying. However, Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank has earlier been rumored to consider buying an impressive shareholding in Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank. The two banks agreed in October 2008 that they would cooperate in the field of lending to entities and individuals through 2012. Their collaborative agenda included joint loans to private and business customers based in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region as well as other parts of Russia; besides, they

Severstal denies the claims made by Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation’s GD Nazim Efendiev regarding the money the former allegedly owes to Uralmash Engineering. Efendiev actually stated at a trade union meeting that Severstal had failed to pay the company for the goods already delivered to them. ‘We cannot see why Severstal should be put on the list of companies unable to pay for the produce shipped to them. This is how things stand: the company bought a 500-ton crane from Uralmash Engineering and hasn’t paid 10 million RUR to it by now. This sum is nothing but a delayed payment (provided

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) performed a series of unscheduled inspections of local enterprises. As a result, plenty of environmental offenses were detected. For one, Baronskoye Mining failed to eliminate one of the three subsoil use regulation violations and therefore had a 3,000-ruble mine imposed on it, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor says. UAZ-SUAL turned out to have violated two regulations and was ordered to improve on the situation. The inspection of Uraltransmash (carried out upon the

Rus-Rating raised URSA Bank’s credit rating from BB+, Indefinite Rating Outlook, to BBB-, Stable Rating Outlook. The agency reports the Russian banks switched to the more conservative lending policies as early as the middle of 2008, as the western markets kept struggling with the economic downfall and it was quite obvious that the global problems were bound to affect the domestic market. ‘Most Russian banks (including URSA Bank) are trying to make their resource base less dependent upon the foreign loans and introducing greater interest rates on the home loan markets as well as growing

The management of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Magnitogorsk branch (the asset of Alfa-Bank at the moment) has recently made 78 people redundant, Chelyabinsk Region Labor and Employment division reported to UrBC. In the meantime, the local office was closed for repairs on February 17, 2009.

Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank is not planning on acquiring Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank, the company’s Deputy PR Director Vitaliy Saprykin was reported as saying. However, Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank has earlier been rumored to consider buying an impressive shareholding in Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank. The two banks agreed in October 2008 that they would cooperate in the field of lending to entities and individuals through 2012. Their collaborative agenda included joint loans to private and business customers based in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region as well as other parts of Russia; besides, they

Severstal denies the claims made by Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation’s GD Nazim Efendiev regarding the money the former allegedly owes to Uralmash Engineering. Efendiev actually stated at a trade union meeting that Severstal had failed to pay the company for the goods already delivered to them. ‘We cannot see why Severstal should be put on the list of companies unable to pay for the produce shipped to them. This is how things stand: the company bought a 500-ton crane from Uralmash Engineering and hasn’t paid 10 million RUR to it by now. This sum is nothing but a delayed payment (provided

‘The Federal Migration Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division’s data on the number of foreign workers entering the region are incomplete, since the only information they get comes from Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg. According to the data I have, the number of foreign workers coming t o the region has halved since the beginning of the year. Most of the workers, who went home upon the end of the season, are now waiting for things to get more certain: it’s a well-known fact that the future of the region’s numerous construction projects is dubious at the moment,’ the leader of Yekaterinburg’s

‘We understand that there might be little demand for our clothes at the time of a crisis. Yet our Yekaterinburg boutique has always been seen as a long-term investment, so we were prepared for this. Besides, we are positive that things will get back to normal and we will be a success. We expect to keep the excitement about the brand up by all sorts of shows and presentations,’ Pierre De Maigret, General Manager at Christian Dior Russia, announced at the opening of their Christian Dior boutique in Yekaterinburg. In the meantime, the ongoing crisis has already forced some luxury brands to leave

Uralfinprombank’s BOD Chairman Ildar Gubayev suggested that the bank’s stockholders buy out their shareholdings. The proposed price comes to 12 RUR per registered uncertified common share; the decision has to be made within seventy days of the offer. At the moment, Gubayev and his affiliates are reported to have 65.68% of the bank’s shares.

Moscow Court of Arbitration rejected the claims laid by Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg and ruled in favor of the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s decision. The Service declared on September 19, 2008 that the airport had violated Article 10 of the federal bill on the protection of competition (namely, the ban on abuse of dominance) by avoiding signing an agreement with no ground for it. Since the airport was willing to eliminate this violation, no orders were issued, but it was still possible to take legal action, with the administrative charge laid on the basis of Article 14.31 of the

According to RBC.Rating, SKB-Bank crowns Sverdlovsk Region-based banks’ success rating in terms of entities’ deposit volume, consumer lending volume, lending portfolio, and the volume of loans offered to entities. ‘What is more, the bank is one of the best in the area in terms of private individuals’ investment and asset growth dynamics,’ says the bank’s press officer. In addition, SKB-Bank is featured in many of the country’s Top 50 bank ratings. The only Russia’s Top 100 Banks list the bank did not get on was the one compiled on the basis of loan loss.

‘The officers of Yekaterinburg’s Leninskiy District division of Department of Internal Affairs did some drilling within the area right next to our bank’s premises on March 4, 2009. About forty people were involved in the procedure altogether, and it took them around thirty minutes to set the ‘hostages’ free,’ Security Director of Bank Société Générale Vostok’s Yekaterinburg branch Igor Kochegarov said to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, a great deal of local dwellers could see a group of militiamen accompanying a few handcuffed people into the car downtown on that same day. All this was happening

The value of Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank’s assets dropped by 14.42% in February 2009, that is, from 6.811 billion RUR on February 1, 2009 to 5.829 billion RUR on March 1, 2009.

Bank24.ru keeps oppressing its own customers through a number of unfriendly policies. For one, the bank’s new tariff schemes provide for a 10% fine in case a customer wants to cash their deposit in before the end of the deposit period. Since charging such a fee directly is actually illegitimate and violates the Russian Federation Civil Code, Bank24.ru appears to have found a way out by introducing a ‘hidden commission’. This means that upon signing a deposit agreement, a customer also has to sign an additional contract which states that, in case the customer chooses to get the money back

The value of Uralfinprombank’s assets went down by 900.068 million RUR, or 16.7%, that is, from 5,385,381,000 RUR on February 1, 2009 to 4,485,513,000 RUR on March 1, 2009. The issuer explains the decrease in asset value has to do with transferring the sums listed under last year’s Fiscal Effect rubric into the last year’s Profit one.

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s assets went down by 526.743 million RUR (from 36,039,329,000 RUR to 35,512,586,000 RUR) in February 2009. These data are available from TRUST’s Trust interactive: Russian banks report.