Sberbank of Russia is going to coordinate a special Coin Fair in 545 of its divisions, based in Sverdlovsk, Ghelyabinsk, and Kurgan Regions and in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The fair will last from September 15, 2008 to October 15, 2008 and will give the visitors a chance to look at and buy over two hundred kinds of coins at very appealing prices, the bank’s press officer reports. Sberbank’s Ural branch’s coin collection is ever-expanding and can even boast the newest coins dedicated to the European football championship 2008: a silver coin that weighs a kilogram and sixteen gold coins to

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Russian Railways Public Company and Sverdlovsk Region Railways as its member, claiming the latter violated the federal bill on the protection of competition, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The inquiry began after a number of enterprises, including V.V. Vorovskiy Machine-Building Plant, Grani Holding Company, Russian Transport Alliance, Boomerang Trading Company, Fluor, Ural-Siberian Forwarder, Teploenergoservice-EC, Teploenergoservice, Uraltransexpeditsiya, Reilcontinent, Plodovo-Ovoschnaya

The sentence passed upon A.Galaktionov came into effect. The public prosecution authorities for Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Region report the man was found guilty of disseminating pirated copies of Microsoft and 1C software that he had copied from the Internet. This means Galaktionov violated the copyright regulations and did Microsoft and 1C 160,000 RUR and 600,000 RUR worth of damage, respectively. The pirated copies were destroyed, while Salekhard court’s ruling gave the offender year of suspended sentence and a 120,000-ruble fine.

Minn-Chem, the U.S.-based fertilizers manufacturer, accused Uralkaliy and Sylvinite of price collusion. Vedomosti reports Minn-Chem placed a claim with the district court of Minnesota, with the world’s top six potassium chloride producers as defendants. These are the Canadian Potash Corp., Mosaic, and Agrium, the Russian Uralkaliy and Sylvinite, and the Byelorussian Belaruskaliy, whose total share of the global market comes to 71%. The plaintiff insists the defendants have been pursuing a policy of price collusion aimed at supporting and increasing the price of their produce imported to the

RBC.Rating reports SKB-Bank has issued the greatest number of cards so far among all the mid-Urals’ banks. The figure reached 480,000 on July 1, 2008. RBC.Rating’s data indicate that most cards are normally issued by Russia’s largest banks within the framework of salary schemes. Most of them are either VISA (49%) or MasterCard (35%) ones. SKB-Bank is nearly at the top of Russia’s Top 30 Banks list in terms of the bank card growth dynamics, as the increase in the number of cards issued by the bank over last year came to more than 33%. The agency’s analysts believe the bank card market will

TEZ Tour appears to keep on violating the advertising legislation despite the earlier warnings and orders. The Federal Antimonopoly Service declared on September 1, 2008 that TEZ Tour, the major tour operator, violated Article 5 (parts 2 and 3) of the federal advertising legislation with ‘undue advertisements’. The inquiry into the case started after Rostourism and Intourist complained about TEZ Tour’s Channel 1 ad that said the company was ‘No.1 Tour Operator’. The Federal Antimonopoly Service found the advertisement improper and insisted on discontinuation of the offense. TEZ Tour, however,

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 22.98% (from 184.449 million RUR to 142.045 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

‘Our Academic construction project is primarily targeted at Yekaterinburg dwellers. We are also hoping that the city’s future district will appeal to people from some other regions, like the retired O&G industry workers and students,’ Renova-StroyGroup Akademicheskoye’s General Director Stanislav Pridvizhkin said in the course of November 4 Political Action Club’s Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk subsidiaries’ meeting. ‘Yekaterinburg’s Academic district will offer its dwellers a new quality environment. To make this happen, we use the best foreign and Russian resources and people. The whole

URSA Bank made 28.425 million RUR worth of coupon payments on its second bond issue, the spokesperson for the bank says. The coupon yield was determined at 7.6% a year, with the payments thus coming to 18.95 RUR per bond. URSA Bank went through with a 1.5-billion-ruble bond issue at MICEX on December 16, 2005; the issue was coordinated by Dresdner Bank. The bonds are to be in circulation for three years and will be fully retired on December 12, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by URSA Bank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days dropped by 81.5% (from 13.141 million RUR to 2.431 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to non-state for-profit organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 61.15% (from 17.8 million RUR to 6.915 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 76% (from 10 million RUR to 2.4 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

The quality of service is an essential component of bank-customer communication: the only way a bank can build up on its share of the market is through meeting and foreseeing its customers’ needs to the fullest,’ says URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s Vice President Vadim Manin. ‘To make sure we can achieve these two goals, URSA Bank came up with a brand new product: our business packages are ‘tariff schemes’ of sorts for our business customers. They provide for a certain amount and volume of prepaid services, primarily those related to cash transactions and settlement procedures and e-banking.

Anyone living in Russia will be able to buy an iPhone without having to get involved with any particular mobile operator. Eolis, for instance, has recently launched a new advertising campaign that is expected to precede the iPhone’s independent sales. Eolis reports these will start as soon as October 2008. As a matter of fact, this will mean falling out of general practice around the world, as most other countries normally sell iPhones with a pre-set subscription to this or that mobile operator. Moreover, a number of Russian operators have also said this could be the way to be adopted for

SKB-Bank’s 01 series bonds were transferred from A2 to A1 MICEX quotation lists. This achievement was made possible due to the bank’s ongoing improvements of internal procedures and business processes. ‘Getting on A1 quotation list will mean many more potential investors for us and our shares’ enhanced liquidity,’ the bank’s press officer said to an UrBC reporter.

The dwellers of Kurgan Region are reported to have bough over $2m worth of Sberbank of Russia’s traveler’s checks in January-August 2008, which exceeds the figures for January-August 2007 by 20%. The bank’s experts report there are also plenty of workers who earn a living outside the region and prefer to turn the money they’ve made into TCs and cash them in Kurgan. This year, Sberbank’s Kurgan branch has paid over $70,000 worth of checks so far, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 92%. The experts explain that it’s wise to buy the TCs in cash that is normally used in the country

Russian Retail Growth Fund (managed by Svarog Capital Advisors) acquired a shareholding in Auto Plus Group, both companies report. Auto Plus Group’s GD Pavel Shestopalov says the fund has bought their additional share issue, while the former owners’ shares have gone down proportionally. Vedomosti reports RRGF paid $45m for the share issue, whose actual percentage in the company’s authorized capital has been kept confidential. Auto Plus Group comprises Toyota Center Yekaterinburg Zapad, Lexus Yekaterinburg, Auto Plus Sever (a used cars dealer), and Auto Plus Rent a Car. The first rumors

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to non-state for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 31.04% (from 469.712 million RUR to 323.911 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Last weekend, Bank Severnaya Kazna stopped accepting the payments Beeline’s customers wanted to make to top up their cell phone account. The bank reports this was because of Beeline’s servers undergoing scheduled maintenance operations. Bank Severnaya Kazna explained the payments did not get handled from 9 PM on September 12, 2008 to 9 AM on September 13, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 63.96% (from 9.081 million RUR to 3.272 million RUR) in January-August 2008.