Moody’s Investors Service promoted URSA Bank from B1/NP to Ba3/NP in terms of foreign currency deposits and from E+ to D- in terms of BFSR on May 4, 2007, the bank’s press officer reports.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down 9% (from 10.95 million RUR to 9.9 million) in January-March 2007.

First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister for Economics and Labor Galina Kovaleva presented her report on the region’s socio-economic development and prospective medium-term consolidated balance-sheet for 2008-2010 to Sverdlovsk Region Government. The Ministry customarily came up with two developmental proposals; one of them presupposes a less favorable combination of the area’s internal and external strengths and weaknesses, the other one is targeted at innovation and progress. According to this scenario, Sverdlovsk Region’s gross regional product is expected to grow 7%

Severnaya Kazna announced it was having problems with its Internetbank project; the bank said they had been struggling with it since May 3, 2007. What is more, Severnaya Kazna mentioned some e-banking trouble on Sunday, April 29, 2007 when Internetbank and Client-Bank were not accessible to any users between 9 AM and 4 PM. Some short-term breakdowns could also have occurred afterwards, the bank admitted. The bank’s customers report e-banking is mostly inconvenient because of the difficulties related to getting access to one’s data during the day. According to the corporate website statistics,

Ural Federal District-based customs services transferred 3.137 billion RUR to the federal budget in April 2007, which exceeds the target figures (2.706 billion) by 15.9%. The share of customs duties imposed on imported goods amounted to 2.671 billion RUR, which exceeds the target figures by 14.5%, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. Overall, 11.729 billion RUR have been transferred to the Russian Federation budget since the beginning of the year, which exceeds the target figures (11.217 billion) by 4.6%.

Following the governmental provision on foreign worker quotas for 2008, all of Sverdlovsk Region’s employers were supposed to place their applications with the nearest job center before May 1, 2007. Given, however, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development’s procrastination with agreeing on the foreign workers application format, Sverdlovsk Region Government interdepartmental committee decided to extend the deadline to May 25, 2007. Every employer willing to use foreign workers must place a standard application with their job center, for authorities to decide on the regional quotas,

First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister for Economics and Labor Galina Kovaleva presented her report on the region’s socio-economic development and prospective medium-term consolidated balance-sheet for 2008-2010 to Sverdlovsk Region Government. Ms Kovaleva was particularly explicit about the fact that the region’s mortality rate was down, the birth rate went up, and life longevity rose by 1.5 years on average.

SKB-Bank set up its new Uralmashevskiy office in the north of Yekaterinburg; the office is located within the district’s busiest area at 47 Kosmonavtov Ave. next to Kosmonavtov Avenue underground station. The new place offers the bank’s customers a full range of appealing services, including a variety of new loan schemes suitable for all kinds of purses, diverse deposits, money orders, and much else besides. The office welcomes natural persons from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends; legal entities will be served from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays. SKB-Bank has 20

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy issued a list of measures needed to gradually finish the 2006/2007 heating season in the city, the city council’s spokesman Konstantin Pudov said to UrBC. 'The decree to this extent was drawn up as early as the end of April 2007, but the heating cut-outs will only begin on May 10, 2007. The date provided in the cutting-out agreement will be considered the official end of the heating season for each particular place,’ he explained. 'These will be the non-residential premises like production facilities that will be cut out first, then it will

Sverdlovsk Region Government looked into the report on how successfully they have been in implementing the Governor’s developmental program for 2006-2007 so far this year. The report was presented by First Deputy Minister for Economics and Labor Nikolai Bespamyatnikh. He said the region’s gross agricultural produce amounted to 3.7 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2007, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 1.7%; besides, the volume of mortgage lending in money terms grew ix times bigger within January and February 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to natural persons despite overdraft account went down 100% (from 64,000 RUR to zero) in January-March 2007.

'We keep getting quite a few complaints from people who are unhappy with the new rules of paying one’s telephone bills that were introduced on February 1, 2007,’ Chairman of Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee Andrey Artemiev said to UrBC. ‘There are generally two kinds of complaints: firstly, those that come from the subscribers who never actually quite understood every single thing about the new additional agreement but signed it all the same and are naturally dissatisfied with the terms now. There is little we can do for these customers at this point since they have already agreed

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders despite overdraft account went down 100% (from 1.622 million RUR to zero) in January-March 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region transferred additional 1,218.3 million RUR worth of taxes to the budget and state non-budgetary funds in January-March 2007; this included 822.7 million RUR worth of sanctions and fines (excluding the fines imposed for delays in payment) and 232.8 million RUR withdrawn after a number of inspections. As regards the year 2006, additional payments amounted to 19.1% of all the taxes paid by the region, with the average sum per one inspected taxpayer coming to 18,900 RUR. These additional payments included insurance fees (49.8%), sanctions (10.8%), fines (6.7%), and fines imposed

The spokesperson for Civil Defense and Fire Safety Administration of Sverdlovsk Region reports that the region is expected to experience 11 to 13 man-caused emergencies this month, including seven to nine fires caused by explosions in the living quarters and industrial facilities because of failing to comply with the furnace heating requirements; some fires will probably be brought about by the misuse of gas-cylinders and violation of fire safety regulations at production sites. The estimated number of fires actually comes to only 50% of those recorded in April but is at the same time

Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia introduced new annual interest rates on a number of loans to natural persons on May 1, 2007. The Housing loan and the Young Family loan are now available at the minimum of 10.75% a year if you use rubles and at the minimum of 11.25% a year if you pay in dollars or euros. The figures used to come to 11.8% and 12.3%, respectively. The loans are provided for a term of five to thirty years now against the previous 20-year upper limit, with the actual interest rate depending on the period of a loan, the scale of the first installment, and the time the dwelling has

A Foreign Investments Committee was set up in Chelyabinsk Region to promote more intense investments within the area; the committee will have to look into the ways of attracting more foreign capital and is expected to come up with proposals for helping local companies find external investors and build up ties with international investment and financial institutions. The committee is made up of representatives of both executive and legislative powers of Chelyabinsk Region, heads of scientific research bodies, and some foreign and domestic investment companies’ executives such as Minister for

‘Russian business tends to evolve very quickly, whereas legal proceedings can take at least six months to complete, and it is not at all improbable for a business involved in a suit to close down before the case is resolved,’ lawyer Ivan Kadochnikov said to UrBC. ‘At the same time, intermediate courts (which are both cheaper and faster than the conventional ones) are not quite so popular since they are often associated with hostile takeovers and require more paperwork. This is why I tend to think that mediation can become a promising business in Russia, as the two parties will be able to

According to SKB-Bank’s trader Alexander Sterkhov, Russian stock market appears to be waiting for the end of the May recess and for the U.S. Federal Reserve System meeting. ‘The week in-between the holidays (Labor Day on May 1 and V-Day on May 9) is traditionally not very impressive as far as the turnovers are concerned. This year was no exception; most investors are waiting to hear from the U.S. before taking any crucial decisions, so RTS index amounted to 1,926 points at the close of business on May 3, 2007 (which means it went down 1.75% within a week), MICEX index came to 3,362.2 points

Concern Kalina has recently published a report on its financial success in the first quarter of 2007. The company’s sales and gross profits amounted to 1,978,800,000 RUR and 1,062,900,000 RUR, respectively, with net profit going down 32.5% against January-March 2006: the figure only reached 144,559 million RUR (against 214,072 million a year earlier). ‘This drop in profits can be largely explained by previous expenses (150.6 million) that have only been accounted for this year due to a number of technicalities in Russian accounting standards; as for reports drawn up in compliance with the