The e-customers of Bank24.ru have been once again faced with the bank’s poor online performance: they couldn’t perform a single transaction, as the service denied private individuals any access to the resource. The denial was explained by preventive maintenance operations, even though the bank never informed its customers about these operations beforehand. Some of the unhappy customers comment on this via E1 forum: ‘There is nothing about the preventive maintenance in the news, so this must be something done on a regular basis and under a schedule, then? I would like my bank to be

The internal rules and policy of Khanty-Mansiysk-based Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank have not been approved of by the Federal Financial Market Service of the Russian Federation so as to counteract laundering proceeds from criminal activity and terrorist financing.

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) carried out an investigation and detected that the fatal accident at Kalyinskaya mine (SUBR-Stroy, Sverdlovsk Region) on January 15, 2010 had been caused by poor mine maintenance, badly organized working space, unsatisfactory arrangement of production processes, and lack of control over technological and production discipline, the spokesperson for the division reports. The fatal accident occurred at Kalyinskaya mine on January 15, 2010. The victim was a forty-five-year-old shaft man. A

Standard & Poor’s decreased Evraz Group’s rating from B+ down to B, with Stable Rating Outlook. ‘The decrease in ratings is a sign that the agency believes Evraz to be entering a period of operational weakness for the next couple of years due to the steel industry’s dramatic downfall,’ says the agency’s credit analyst Alex Herbert. S&P expects the company to remain heavily in debt (stemming from some earlier acquisitions) and to have limited cash generation. The agency feels Evraz Group’s profits and cash flow will gradually restore as the steel market slowly comes back to life.

A new out-of-furnace steel processing unit was launched at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) oxygen converter shop on February 19, 2010. MMK PR Department reports the modern hi-tech unit is part of a bigger system meant for manufacturing new, competitive products that meet all the global standards (including the requirements for pipe steel with strength index up to Х120). The launch of the unit will make it possible to use the company’s CC machine No.6 for producing at least 2 million tons of slabs a year; the slabs will then be used in thick plate production at Mill 5000. MMK and SMS

YIT, the Finnish investment and construction concern, decided to raise the authorized capital of its daughter enterprise YIT Uralstroy in Yekaterinburg. The additional issue of the company’s ordinary shares worth 921.5 million RUR has already been registered. YIT Uralstroy’s GD Fedor Voropayev reports the increase was supposed to have occurred a year ago, but was postponed because of the recession. According to the company’s official data, YIT sold 2,610 apartments in Russia last year, which was 6% less than in 2008. The number of the apartments that have just been started dropped by 81% and

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin met the dwellers of Severouralsk, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. ‘Severouralsk is important for the development of the northern parts of Sverdlovsk Region. This is actually a town with only one employer, as 90% of industrial output comes from Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) and related enterprises. The town really needs a diversification program and other businesses,’ Misharin said. The Governor particularly emphasized the importance of meeting the townspeople, who can provide him with first-hand information about the locals’

The primary stockholders of Eldorado (the consumer electronics chain store) Igor Yakovlev and the Czech PPF Group agreed to redistribute their shares in the business. According to Vedomosti, Yakovlev is to sell his 50%-minus-one-share holding to PPF Group for $100m and will get back his personal business assets Advantage Group (ADG) and RealEstateDevelopment (R.E.D.). Vedomosti reports the news was announced by several sources within PPF Group and Eldorado’s management. The Group offered Eldorado a $500m loan in the fall of 2008. The loan was secured by 51% of Cyprus-based Fasipero,

OAO VUZ-Bank (Life Financial Group) normally makes about 70% of its bad debtors go bust. The bank can let a debtor have the debts restructured only in 30% of cases, the bank’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Andrei Zolotukhin said in the course of round table discussion on bankruptcy vs. restructuring in Yekaterinburg. ‘The banks are willing to restructure the debts, but it all depends on the debtors. The borrowing parties often claim to be ready for this, but reality proves different. This is a very common thing. So the bank needs to protect its interests and to make the business undergo

After it was requested to do so by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the Economic News Agency has been doing research on how efficient the lobbying efforts of Russian business community, state authorities, and deputies are. The latest data were gathered in January 2010 and indicated that Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin could be declared one of Russia’s most effective lobbying agents among region’s leaders. His rating was actually much higher in January 2010 than in December 2009. The rating also featured Yuri Luzhkov, Valentina Matvienko, Roman Abramovich, Ramzan Kadyrov, and a number of

Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Board of Directors Viktor Rashnikov took part in the governmental committee’s meeting devoted to the Russian metallurgical industry’s development. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to the metallurgical sector’s post-recession development, the current investment programs, and the ways to increase demand for metal products on the construction and machine-building markets. Viktor Rashnikov observed that stimulating demand within the metal goods-consuming industries

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court refused to meet the demands of AlfaStrakhovaniye and declare the decision of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service invalid, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division ruled on August 18, 2009 that Bank24.ru and three insurers, Uveren.ru, Guta-Strakhovaniye, and AlfaStrakhovaniye, violated Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Competition Protection Act. The companies were found guilty of an administrative offense as stated in Article 14.31 of the Administrative Offense Code. The division

‘The handling of the case involving L’Etoile (suspected of sending out text messages with advertisements without the phone number users’ written assent) was postponed because we were not provided with all the necessary documents relevant to the case,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Marina Yusupova informed UrBC. Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service is looking into the case of OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile cosmetics chain store). The company is suspected of violating Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act.

Following Bank Severnaya Kazna’s financial recovery procedure, only 28.57% of the bank’s business customers got transferred to Alfa-Bank, the new owner. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna had about 21,000 active business customers, of whom approximately 6,000 joined Alfa-Bank,’ Alfa-Bank’s Regional Business Customer Development Director Mikhail Povaliy said in the course of an online conference broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. When asked about the number of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s e-customers at the start of the financial recovery procedure, however, Alfa-Bank’s top executive seemed at a loss.

OAO Alfa-Bank had to close down five offices of Bank Severnaya Kazna in the course of the financial recovery procedure the latter needed, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Roman Vitkovskiy said in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. The conference was broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. ‘Bank Severnaya Kazna used to have thirty-eight offices throughout Russia. Five of them stopped operating, and so did one of Alfa-Bank’s own offices. The remaining outlets are now used by both banks to make sure customers can get serviced in the

Over 24,000 business customers of Bank Severnaya Kazna refused to get transferred to Alfa-Bank. Alfa-Bank’s managers report that Bank Severnaya Kazna, which Alfa-Bank bought about fourteen months ago, used to have 30,000 business customers, of whom only 5,626 agreed to carry on with the new owner. ‘About 30,000 legal entities used the services of Bank Severnaya Kazna. Some 22,000 of them were active, that is, they performed at least one transaction a month. 5,626 business customers moved to Alfa-Bank by December 31, 2009, with over 1.556 billion RUR in their accounts. Ninety-four business

Alfa-Bank’s top executives still cannot decide what to do with their new asset, Bank Severnaya Kazna, Alfa-Bank’s COO Valeriy Novikov announced in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. The conference was broadcast via Alfa-Bank’s official website. ‘We have to options to choose between: liquidation or a merger. The final decision will be taken by April 1, 2010, this is the deadline stated in the bank’s financial recovery schedule,’ Novikov explained when asked by a reporter. Yekaterinburg-based Bank Severnaya Kazna found itself on the brink of bankruptcy late in 2008 and

OAO Alfa-Bank was unable to retain all of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s customers, about 40% of whom refused to switch to the Moscow-based bank, Alfa-Bank’s Chief Operating Officer Valeriy Novikov announced in the course of an online conference held by the two banks. ‘Nevertheless, the remaining 60% of customers from various service segments actually became Alfa-Bank’s new clients,’ he added. Alfa-Bank’s management reports transferring business customers from Bank Severnaya Kazna to Alfa-Bank is more difficult than transferring private customers. ‘The business customer migration process is much more