The banks located in Ural Federal District managed to raise the volume of investments by private individuals by 38.5% last year, including a 10% increase in October-December 2007, the Deposit Insurance Agency says. Sverdlovsk Region-based banks did particularly well, as their natural person deposit portfolio went up by 45%, which is better than the results reached by the banks based in Tyumen Region (34.8%), Chelyabinsk Region (33.1%), or Kurgan Region (24.1%). Only the banks of Sverdlovsk and Tyumen Regions experienced some natural person deposit portfolio growth (by 12.6% and 12.9%

'The number of consumer loan cooperatives like RichBrokerCreditService Active, Active Invest, and Grand Capital has been increasing in Sverdlovsk Region lately,‘ Deputy GD and Director of Accord Invest’s Ural branch Konstantin Selyanin said to UrBC. In the meantime, the representatives of Accord Invest’s Ural branch have placed over fifteen complaints with the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s regional division since February 1, 2008. The complaints are all related to these cooperatives’ activity. 'Five more cooperatives were introduced in the region within the last two or three

The share price of Uralskiy Krai (the unit investment trust run by Investstroy Management Company) went down by 18.94% (from 173,601.81 RUR to 145,958.12 RUR) between December 29, 2007 and January 31, 2008. These data are available from Investstroy’s official website.

'Uralsvyazinform’s apparent inability to get a loan can largely be explained by extraneous factors: after all, the liquidity crisis unfolds on a global scale, so Russian banks that used to get cheap resources abroad easily now have a very hard time getting them,’ Unicom Partner Investment Company’s Asset Management Director Sergei Kaliberda said to UrBC. In the meantime, the mobile operator started accepting applications from banks willing to offer them a loan on February 20, 2008. The company offered the potential creditors four 2.65-billion-ruble lots. The company has already had a

First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister of Economics and Labor Mikhail Maximov was elected the new Chairman of Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank’s Board of Directors. He actually succeeded Ms Galina Kovaleva, who had been appointed by the region’s government and had up to the summer of 2007 been First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.21% (from 217.128 million RUR to 173.242 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.4% between February 14, 2008 and February 15, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,093,749.87 RUR on February 14, 2008 to 3,050,377.87 RUR on February 15, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 72% (from 12.5 million RUR to 3.5 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

URSA Bank has recently launched the new version of www.ursabank.ru, the company’s official website, as part of the bank’s brand introduction strategy. Changes are mostly related to website’s design. The site now looks brighter, more spacious and lightsome and therefore corresponds with the bank’s working style and image much better, the bank’s press officer reports. The site developers were trying to make it as user-friendly as possible, taking into account the region-specific features and the symbolic dichotomy of the bank’s Siberian and Ural divisions. The website offers the bank’s

The volume of SKB-Bank’s net assets came to 29.48 billion RUR on February 1, 2008, which is 11.3 billion RUR better than a year earlier, while the bank’s loan portfolio increased by over 12 billion RUR and amounted to 18.67 billion RUR, the bank’s press officer reports. SKB-Bank managed to attract 26.15 billion RUR worth of investments (including 8.94 billion RUR worth of private individuals’ investments) by February 1, 2008. The bank thus does better than most regional bank and is, in fact, Sverdlovsk Region’s No.1 bank in terms of consumer loan volumes.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the international auditing company, announced it was going to set up an office in Yekaterinburg. The decision to this extent was made at PriceWaterhouseCoopers Auditing Department’s representative Stanley Ruth’s meeting with Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev. Mr. Konteev’s press officer reports the council is already looking for the suitable premises, and the company is planning to make a presentation on their activity to the local business community very soon. Mr. Ruth says PriceWaterhouseCoopers is planning to attract investments on the car parts market,

Uralprivatbank’s consumer loan portfolio decreased by .4% and came to 3,317,729,000 RUR in January 2008. These data are available from a report on the dynamics of consumer loan portfolio growth of the largest banks in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and Perm Territory in January 2008 to be found on Bank Severnaya Kazna’s official website.

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Board of Directors decided to go through with the additional issue of 6,170,000 ordinary registered uncertified shares with face value of 10 RUR apiece, while the price of the shares was determined at 162.075 RUR per share. This share issue will probably be acquired by East Capital Explorer Financial Institutions Fund AB the day after the issue has been registered by the state. This information was provided by the bank in compliance with the demand that any issuer and/or a joint stock company must promptly reveal any data related to their activity that might influence

UralTransBank’s own funds went down by .9% in January 2008 and reached 1,675,587,000 RUR on February 1, 2008. These data are available from a report on the performance of the largest banks in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions and Perm Territory in January 2008 to be found on Bank Severnaya Kazna’s official website.

According to the National Managers’ League’s official website, the share price of Az-Capital (the unit mixed investment trust run by Management Company) went down by 9.57% (from 1.60085 RUR to 1.44764 RUR per share) between December 29, 2007 and January 31, 2008.

'All the construction work done within the framework of preparations for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg meets all the town planning and land code requirements. All the projects are subject to very strict control and expert assessment by both the regional and federal authorities. Only after the project has been approved of by the officials and experts and the land has been officially allotted for it, can the city’s construction authorities allow the building process to start,’ the spokesperson for the Mayor Konstantin Pudov reports. According to Mr.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 15.18% (from 32.42 million RUR to 27.5 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

'On February 21, 2008, the shareholders of Nizhniy Tagil Boiler and Radiator Unit Plant will start considering which candidate could be appointed the enterprise’s general director. Even the BOD members haven’t got all the personal data on these candidates yet, which is why it’s very surprising that the BOD member Boris Dyakonov claims he’s got evidence of one of the candidate’s (whose name is Pavel Vasilyev) incompetence,’ the plant’s Legal Issues Director Irina Sytnik says. The BOD meeting on the upcoming elections of the company’s GD took place on February 15, 2008, whereupon some

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 56.22% (from 276.459 million RUR to 121.033 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralsib to state-run for-profit organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 95.12% (from 179 million RUR to 8.3 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.