Fitch и Moody's report URSA Bank’s Rating Outlooks have been promoted due to the stockholders’ decision to unite in a holding with MDM-Bank, the bank’s press officer reports. Fitch affirmed the bank’s short-term Issuer Default Rating at B+ and gave it a Rating Watch Positive. The agency reports the proposed merger will enable the two banks to build up on their strengths in the business and retail market segments as well as to open up a whole range of brand new advantages through expanded customer base, greater size, and more pronounced risk diversification. Moody's has also affirmed

Deposit Insurance Agency, the state corporation, reports a general agreement has been signed by the agency, Bank24.ru, and Probusinessbank regarding the terms and the order of the three parties’ interaction in the course of Bank24.ru’s financial recovery. The agreement states that Probusinessbank, the investor, is to buy enough shares of Bank24.ru to be able to do the necessary decision-making. At the same time, the investor is to fully meet its obligations as to Bank24.ru’s financial recovery and thus to restore the bank’s financial development indicators to the level required by the Bank of

One accident occurred at the local railways between November 28, 2008 and December 5, 2008, the spokesperson for the Federal Transport Surveillance Service reports. A group of eight loaded wagons that had been detached and left unhooked on the connecting line started running off the track and collided with an oil locomotive at Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ Nizhneserginskaya station at 2.30 PM on December 3, 2008. The shunting master, who was located in the front of the group, was hurt badly and died in hospital. The case is currently under investigation.

‘URSA Bank and MDM-Bank’s principal shareholders talk the same language and aim to make the new holding Russia’s leading private bank. This is why coming to an agreement was easy enough. It became clear early in the negotiation process that our goals coincide,’ URSA Bank’s BOD Chairman Igor Kim announced at a press conference in Novosibirsk. Igor Kim feels this is an unprecedented deal scale-wise. ‘This is something yet unique to Russia’s banking system. The impact made by the current crisis can be seen as not being very significant, since the merger talks started as early as a year ago, and

According to Standard & Poor's, Sverdlovsk Region is currently one of Russia’s most industrially advanced regions (its foreign currency liability rating is ВВВ+/Negative/А-2; its national currency liability rating is А-/Negative/А-2; its national scale rating is ruAAA). ‘The rating growth is hindered by the lack of flexibility and predictability of the budgetary expenses and revenues. Then, the tax revenues might drop due to the slowing down of the economic growth rate over the next few years and the remaining pressure of the current expenditures and the dire need for capital

SKB-Bank offered its customers a new deposit type known as Patriot. The uniqueness of the new product lies in the combination of great profitability with a shorter than usual deposit period, the bank’s press officer reports. The deposit period only comes to a swift one hundred days, while the annual interest rate comes to 16.01% for ruble deposits. One has to deposit at least 10,000 RUR, $300, or ?300 (for foreign currency deposits, the interest rates come to 10% a year). In addition, all of SKB-Bank’s customers who open the Patriot deposit type at the bank will get a chance to win UAZ

Bank24.ru got a new set of shareholders in the early antemeridian hours of December 5, 2008, the bank’s official website reports. 20% of shares now belong to Probusinessbank, 19.565% of shares are now owned by Probusinessbank’s IT Director Alexei Pirogov, 19.969% of shares belong to Probusinessbank’s Vice President for Credit Risks Yaroslav Alekseev, 20% belong to Porbusinessbank’s Vice President Sergey Letunov, and the remaining 20% belong to Porbusinessbank’s Vice President Konstantin Martemyanov. Bank24.ru’s website says the agreement to this extent was signed by Deposit Insurance Agency,

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin discussed last week’s achievements with his deputies and set the goals for the coming week. He was quite satisfied with Deputy Governor Yuri Klepov’s announcement that the regional wage arrears had gone down by 20 million RUR. Besides, a few local enterprises called off their applications placed with the employment service regarding 535 prospective redundancies. Then, the Russian Federation Ministry of Regional Development agreed to provide the region with 900 million RUR (directed from the federal budget) needed to relocate people living in slum

‘Intourist Travel Shop (Intourist’s 100% daughter enterprise) has nearly completed the acquisition of Yekaterinburg-based Rosstour’s 51% shareholding. Even though the transaction is not fully through yet, the principal decision has already been made and finalized, the spokeswoman for Intourist Yulia Krylova said to an UrBC reporter. ‘The purchase of Rosstour’s network will allow Intourist Travel Shop to improve on its retail sales and thus building up Intourist’s share of the Ural market,’ she explained. Rosstour runs twenty-one own offices and four franchising-based ones at the moment. ‘We

‘Some businesses closely connected with Probusinessbank bought over 90% of Bank24.ru’s shares, of which 20% were acquired by Probusinessbank itself and the remaining amount by the other members of Life Group,’ Probusinessbank’s Vice President Grigory Galitskikh says. ‘The transaction was carried out in the early hours of December 5, 2008. The trilateral agreement, the third party being the Deposit Insurance Agency, had been signed the day before. The decision regarding the bank’s capital was made by the bank’s BOD,’ he adds. ‘The bank is to join Life Group. The future of Bank24.ru’s brand and

The Deposit Insurance Agency reports a loss occurrence regarding Tyumenenergobank starting December 4, 2008. Tyumenenergobank’s provisional administration has started working on the list of the bank’s liabilities involving its depositors. The list will be placed with the Deposit Insurance Agency within seven days of the bank’s license being annulled. Then, the agency is to publish the information regarding the place, time, and format of placing applications for compensation within seven days of getting this list. The news will be announced via the Bank of Russia Bulletin, the local press, and

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Tagilbank valid for 31 to 90 days went down by 36.41% (from 20.546 million RUR to 13.064 million RUR) in October 2008.

SKB-Bank’s bonds (state file number 40100705B) have been included in the Bank of Russia’s Lombard List. This inclusion signifies the Bank of Russia’s recognition of SKB-Bank’s stock’s quality. The Central Bank of Russia reports the inclusion criteria are based on the compliance of the issuer’s rating obtained from at least one of the foreign agencies (Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings or Moody's Investors Service) with that determined by the Bank of Russia, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘This means that the Bank of Russia gives a very favorable assessment of SKB-Bank’s bonds

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) carried out a number of inspections at regional enterprises. As a result, Pervouralsk-based Russian Chrome 1915 was found guilty of twelve environmental violations and was therefore given five orders, the spokesperson for Rosprirodnadzor reports. The enterprise will also have to face administrative prosecution as a legal entity.

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports that due to Tyumenenergobank’s inability to meet the creditors’ demands, a decision was made to annul the license allowing the bank to perform banking operations starting December 4, 2008. The bank’s former file number was 2419 as of July 12, 1993. The Bank of Russia’s decision was validated by order OD 915 as of December 3, 2008 and was based on Article 19 and Article 20 (part 2, paragraph 4) of the Federal Bill On Banks and Banking Activity and Article 74 (part 3) of the Federal Bill On The Central Bank of The Russian Federation (The Bank of

Following the decision taken by Evraz Group’s Board of Directors, Alexander Abramov was elected BOD Chairman, thus succeeding Alexander Frolov, who is to remain the company’s President, the company’s press officer reports. The main idea behind the new appointment is expanding the scope of strategic and tactical decision-making. Alexander Abramov will be responsible for coordinating the Board of Directors’ performance, while Alexander Frolov is to go on with the daily management of the company’s metallurgical and ore mining enterprises.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 12.08% (from 209.4 million RUR to 184.1 million RUR) in October 2008.

Leader Holding Company acquired 33.3216% of CIT Capital after all the rights and responsibilities associated with these shares were transferred to Leader Holding Company as a result of the business’s reorganization. At the same time, CIT Capital went through with the 100% equity carve-out in CIT Yekaterinburg’s authorized capital.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin awarded the Medal of Honor to the region’s Minister of Agriculture Ivan Feklin after the Russian Federation President Dmitriy Medvedev signed an order to this extent to reward the Minister for his work achievements and longstanding conscientious service. Ivan Feklin has been the Minister of Agriculture for three years now. His strategy is based on the unified state policy aimed at the agribusiness’s development and providing the region’s dwellers with good quality foods. The ministry keeps working on the farms’ technical upgrading and introduction of

MDM-Bank and URSA Bank announced recently that their stockholders decided to put their shares together in order to set up a banking holding and thus one of Russia’s leading universal banks. ‘Following the merger, the new bank, with its 72-billion-ruble capital and 523 billion RUR worth of assets is to become one of the country’s major banks. This merger of two strong and reputable banks results from in-depth strategic analysis and is bound to be mutually beneficial. In fact, the new bank will be able to take advantage of over 500 offices located in all of the country’s federal districts,’