Expert-Ural came up with a rating of Western Siberia and the Urals’ thirty-two largest banks’ corporate websites. These informational sites were evaluated on the basis of 44 different criteria that could be divided into two general categories: 1) quality of information and 2) user-friendliness and design. The website of Bank24.ru got three awards in the Best Website, the Information on the Bank, and the Navigation and Design categories. Remarkably, Bank24.ru crowned the rating in these same categories last year as well. ‘These great rating results are already becoming our good tradition. The

Central Bank of Russia reports the volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to state-owned profit-making organizations (excluding federal property) for a term of 1 to 3 years went down by 29.17% (from 4.999 million RUR to 3.541 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

A car crashed into passenger train 265 going from Nizhniy Tagil to Simferopol at an unattended railway crossing located at the 481st kilometer of Moscow Railways’ Orel-Kursk section this morning. Four people were killed in the accident, two victims of the crash are now in grave condition, Russian Railways Public Company’s press officer reports. The company claims the car driver violated traffic rules outrageously by driving onto the rails right in front of an approaching train. The motorman had to go for the emergency brake application, but this was not enough to prevent the collision.

'Apart from the requirement regarding the need for the insurers to build up on capital quantity wise, they must now pay attention to the quality of this capital as well. I believe the order on cancelling a company’s license if it fails to meet both demands should be ready within a month’s time,’ head of Insurance Authority in Ural Federal District Vladimir Ostrovskiy says. 'An insurance company might have some real estate or promissory notes provided by banks and large dependable companies to fall back on. A lot of insurers, though, took to using promissory notes of insolvent

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg had to stop operating from 11.17 PM to 12.50 AM and from 3.50 AM to 4.50 AM on July 12, 2007 due to a major lightning storm. This resulted in planes bound to Krasnoyarsk, Bishkek, Vladivostok, and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk taking off later than had been expected. Aviaprad’s planes coming from Samara and Ufa arrived in Yekaterinburg with great delays. Moreover, the carrier had to put off flights to Noviy Urengoi and Beloyarskiy.

A conciliation committee members considered a draft bill on changes that need to be made in the law on the introduction and implementation of transport tax in Sverdlovsk Region. The bill has already been declined during the last governmental session because of the proposed tax relief for people who use environmentally friendly vehicles. As there were no statistical data on the number of Euro-5, Euro-4, Euro-3, or Euro-2 cars in the region, it was impossible to say how much money would thus be taken out of the budget. The committee members unanimously decided that only Euro-5 and Euro-4 buses

Continent Siberia’s 26th issue as of July 6, 2007 featured a report on the banks’ activity in the first quarter of 2007. URSA Bank topped all the ratings comprising Siberian banks in terms of both the amount of stock and investments made by legal entities. These ratings covered the figures applicable to URSA Bank’s Siberian branch. The magazine’s expert Sergei Nikiforov says URSA Bank is one of the most business-friendly banks in the region as it runs 20% of all finances owned by legal bodies of Siberia. In addition, URSA Bank was declared Siberia’s second largest bank in terms of volume of

According to VISA International's estimates, Russian banks issued 36.6 million VISA cards in January-March 2007. This general popularity of the system can be traced in individual success stories: SKB-Bank, for one, has issued over 50,000 new VISA cards since the beginning of the year, with the total number of cards issued by the bank approaching 350,000. People also tend to make more non-cash payments lately. VISA International reports the number of supermarket transactions where VISA card was involved rose to over 113 million, or by 75%, at the end of March 2007. This means every

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 31% (from 151.197 million RUR to 103.274 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

The scandalous case of Antimonopoly Service vs. Lilia (a lingerie shop) was finally tried on in the court of Lipetsk, Russia. The shop owner, a man named Vyacheslav Arkhipenko, was accused of employing ads that encouraged a sort of voyeuristic thrill in adults and were dangerous for the morality of children. Mr. Arkhipenko was explained that a billboard depicting a half-naked woman should not have been located next to a school, a kindergarten, and a few administrative blocks. Federal Antimonopoly Service consulted a psychologist named L. Nabatnikova, who said the woman in the ad was wearing

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin is going to take part in Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Works’ 250th anniversary celebrations on July 14, 2007. The agenda of the Governor’s visit to Kyshtym covers examining the construction site of a new sports stadium and an elementary school. He is also expected to come to the plant’s premises to have a look at the new equipment and technologies used in copper rolled wire production. Mr. Sumin will also discuss the company’s developmental prospects with General Director Alexander Volkhin. Finally, the Governor will take part in a solemn ceremony

A lot more fresh fruit and vegetables have been imported to Russia across the Russian-Kazakh frontier since the beginning of the year compared to 2006. Officers of Kazanskoye customs post, for instance, issued 269 freight declarations worth $2,547,100 in January-June 2007, which greatly exceeds the figures for a year earlier (94 declarations worth $526,400), Ural Customs Administration reports. Most declarations have to do with fresh greens (such as celery, lettuce, and sweet red pepper), cabbage, tomatoes, green onions, and garlic. The customs posts of Tyumen have already transferred 5.7

Head of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) Konstantin Pulikovskiy is going to hold a meeting devoted to Rostechnadzor’s activity in Ural Federal District on July 12, 2007. Mr. Pulikovskiy is also expected to appoint the new head of Rostechnadzor in Ural Federal District (whose name hasn’t been revealed yet) this Thursday. Former head of Rostechnadzor in Ural Federal District Andrei Korolev passed away in April 2007. Nikolai Krupinin has been the agency’s acting head since then.

Sberbank’s Ural branch has introduced 11 new safe deposit vaults with individual safe cells since the beginning of the year. Four of them are located in Yekaterinburg-based offices; the offices in Chelyabinsk Region and Bashkortostan got three vaults each; one vault can now be found at 10/1 2nd Micro-district in Kurgan. The bank’s Ural division has got 65 safe deposit vaults altogether, located in 41 different cities. The number of customers actually using these vaults comes to about 6,000. Individual safe cells are a dependable way of safekeeping one’s valuables, important papers, and cash.

The opening ceremony of Russian Defense Expo 2007 took place at Staratel range in the vicinity of Nizhniy Tagil on July 11, 2007. The event was supported by SKB-Bank as usual. Over 300 Russian and foreign companies are expected to make presentations on weapons and military equipment employing troops from the Ministry of Emergencies and Ministry of Internal Affairs as well as army soldiers, who will show how preventing acts of terror and saving people’s lives can be made more effective with this enginery. Companies dealing in security systems and protection for individuals, banks, and large

URSA Bank’s office based in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, is now located in a new spacious building at 195 Sovetskaya St. 'For us, moving to a new office is the same as getting another birthday; this event symbolizes greater opportunities for both us and our customers as well as new plans, new ideas and new ways of making them a reality. The office can boast some new products and services such as credit cards, mortgages, a lot of car loan schemes, and offers for employers who’d like to pay their workers with the help of a bank card rather than in cash. We would really like our

The public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region are now looking into how successfully the local governments and state bodies have been complying with the land laws. These inquires will include checking for adherence to the rules when deciding on whether the land should belong to the state, to the Russian Federation subjects, or to municipalities and when using state-owned land allotments. The investigation is to involve Sverdlovsk Region government authorities, local governments, regional divisions of Rosnedvizhimost, Rosimuschestvo, Rosprirodnadzor, Rosselkhoznadzor, and Rosstroy

VUZ Bank’s net profit went down by 10% (from 62,013 RUR to 32,251 RUR ) in the second quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of the year, which means it decreased by 29,762 RUR. This information was published in compliance with the demand that an issuer and/or a joint stock company must promptly reveal any essential data that could influence its stock price.

The Fifth Power Generation Company (aka OGK-5) came up with a financial report for 2006 drawn up in compliance with the international accounting standards. The company’s report for 2005 was prepared last fall when Sredneuralskaya and Reftinskaya power stations had not joined them yet. OGK-5’s net profit decreased down to 3.2 billion RUR, or by 35%, in 2006. According to Vedomosti newspaper, the company’s EBITDA amounted to $89 million, with profitability coming to 9.8% instead of the 13.9% predicted by Aton and 16.4% predicted by Troika Dialog. This made Aton experts refer to OGK-5’s results

Ural Turbine Plant (part of Renova Group) shipped a 60-megawatt steam turbine to a power station based in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan. The remaining two cars out of the twenty-car shipment left the company’s premises a couple of days ago. This is the 39th steam turbine the plant has made for Kazakhstan. The previous turbine was sent to Astana at the end of 2005, the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Plant reports. 'The Kazakh market has always been very important to us, so we keep trying to retain our share of it by constantly improving on the goods we offer. This time, the turbine has got a new