Wings Travel Club (Ural Airlines’ daughter enterprise) held a strategic meeting devoted to evaluating the five years of the company’s activity on April 2, 2008. The other points on the agenda covered issues like the company’s new development plan that is believed to help Wings Travel Club get on Russia’s Top 5 travel agents list in terms of plane ticket sales. According to Kommersant and Turinfo’s annual ratings, Wings Travel Club’s ticket sales have secured it the tenth best result throughout the country so far. ‘We’ve been on the market for five years and have gone a long way from a single

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinance Commercial Bank to Russian Federation’s financial bodies and local governments went down by 16.7% (from 5 million RUR to 4.165 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

About fifteen people employed with Aviaprad filed a complaint with Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution bodies that handle offenses in the transportation field. They claim the air carrier has failed to pay their salaries in February and March 2008, Deputy Public Prosecutor for Transportation Vasily Vasyushkin said to UrBC. Mr. Vasyushkin reported the arrears of wages amounted to 31 million RUR. ‘The case is currently under the investigation; after the inquiry has been completed, Aviaprad will either be faced with a filing petition or an administrative lawsuit, or possibly both,’ he added.

CREDCARD, the Internet portal, came up with its People’s Customer Trust Rating where Russian banks’ plastic cards were evaluated based on the statistical analysis of the portal’s visitors’ opinions. Respondents were asked to assess a bank’s card on a scale of zero to ten, and then the average of all votes was found considering the number of voters. According to the results of this voting, SKB-Bank made it to the Top 10 Banks list in terms of customer trust index, which means the bank’s customers trust the company highly enough and feel good about its service. CREDCARD’s analysts report the

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 31, 2008, the share price of LUKoil Fund First (Uralsib Management Company) has gone down by 17.17% since the beginning of the year.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 61.9% (from 31.5 million RUR to 12 million RUR) in January 2008.

Ural Airlines is about to sign a contract with CFM International regarding the delivery of fifteen air engines for seven Airbus A 320 airplanes. The contract-signing ceremony will be attended by Ural Airlines’ General Director Sergey Skuratov, CFO Kirill Skuratov, and the company’s other executives. CFM International will be represented by the company’s Vice President for International Sales, Engine Sales Director, Manager for Legal Issues, and CFM’s representative in Russia Sergey Sklyarov. In addition, Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Minister for Industry and Science Anatoly Gredin is expected

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits in UralFinPromBank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 8.24% in January 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region’s law-enforcement agencies have started the second round of inspecting the local car centers and show rooms. The inspections first started on January 23, 2008 when the press officer of Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs Valeriy Gorelikh made an announcement to this extent. He then said inspections would be related to tax evasion, undeclared wages, and violations of customs regulations as well as to the numerous complaints made by customers who are unhappy with the sales procedures. Krasnolesye and Okami Motors were the first companies to undergo investigation,

RBC.Rating’s experts came up with their ranking of Russia’s most prominent factoring companies in 2007. SKB-Bank was rated rather highly in quite a few respects: the bank got good positions in terms of volume of financing provided by a factor and in terms of the number of contracts, for example. RBC.Rating reports SKB-Bank was the Urals’ only bank to hit the country’s Top 15 factoring companies ranking based on the amount of the money transferred. Besides, SKB-Bank is definitely Russia’s leading factoring company in terms of the number of offices and outlets it runs in Russia. Last year,

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel is to visit Slovakia on April 3-4, 2008 as a member of an official delegation headed by Head of Russian Federation Government Viktor Zubkov, the spokesperson for the Governor reports.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 14.89% (from 370.12 million RUR to 315,000 RUR) in January 2008.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel accepted the resignation of First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and region’s Minister for Industry and Science Vladimir Molchanov. Mr. Molchanov decided to leave office of his own will in order to become a retiree, the spokesperson for the Government reports.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits in Tagilbank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 14.16% (from 80.878 million RUR to 69.421 million RUR) in January 2008.

‘96 people, headed by V. Zolotarev, refused to go up the ground after their shift was over at Krasnaya Shapochka mine (part of Severouralsk Bauxite Mine, aka SUBR) on March 26, 2008. These miners are still under the ground and are thus preventing the other shifts and mine sections from operating. The ongoing strike made SUBR management halt the other mines’ work for the time being,’ says a statement made by Russia’s Ore and Mining Trade Union’s Central Council and signed by the union’s chairperson M. Tarasenko. The Council reports they consider the strikers’ actions to be a selfish

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 28, 2008, the share price of BCS Bank Stock Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 19.56% since the beginning of the year.

Nashi Dengi, the financial magazine, coordinated some free information workshops for all those willing to come; the event (part of the magazine’s educational project targeted at Russian provinces and improving the quality of life there), known as Financial Literacy Days, was held at the Ural State University’s Assembly Hall. Reports were made by experts from the area’s leading banks and investment companies, including those presented by Sberbank’s Ural branch’s acting Securities Director Alexander Vasilyev and Private Loans Director Svetlana Galanova. Over one hundred workshop attendants were

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s new VISA Olympics offer will be available from April 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008. To use the new offer, one only needs to pay for one’s purchases by a Visa card (the sum of the transaction must come to at least 500 RUR); you can’t use the offer if you use your card to withdraw cash from an ATM or a bank outlet. On June 18, 2008, the drawing of lottery prizes for the Russian citizens who’ve used their cards will be organized. The lottery participants will be given a chance to win one hundred gym bags and five main prizes: trips for two to the

March and April are traditionally the time when banks publish their annual reports for the previous year, while the country’s leading media usually spend some time analyzing these reports. URSA Bank, for example, was rated Russia’s 17th largest bank in terms of net asset volume (as of January 1, 2008) by RosBusinessConsulting, Forbes, and Kommersant-Dengi. In addition, Dengi gave the bank the 18th position in Russia’s largest banks rating based on the volume of the banks’ own funds. According to RosBusinessConsulting’s rating of Best Deposit Banks, URSA Bank was given the 12th position in

Nikolai Krupinin, Deputy Head of Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) chaired a meeting on the results of checking VIZ Stal’s compliance with the existing conservational and environmental regulations. The enterprise was inspected in this respect between February 11, 2008 and March 6, 2008, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor says. It was revealed in the course of the inspection that the enterprise was guilty of some grave environmental offenses, therefore VIZ Stal was ordered