The internal rules and policy of Moscow-based ZAO KAB Bank Société Générale Vostok and Moscow-based OAO Nordea 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 as well as terrorist financing.

Dmitriy Vinogradov is no longer a shareholder of OAO Bank Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank). He used to own a little over 10% of the bank’s shares, which have recently been sold to VALLAUR LIMITED. Yekaterinburg-based Bank Severnaya Kazna had to undergo a financial recovery procedure at the end of 2008 after it had been very near bankruptcy. The procedure was carried out by the bank’s new owner, Alfa-Bank, and Deposit Insurance Agency. The new proprietor intends to close Bank Severnaya Kazna down as an independent business and is now gradually moving to the bank’s total phase-out. In

‘Lucky Motors’ Yekaterinburg show rooms are currently displaying the car makes designed in 2008 and 2009. We have to explain to the customers willing to buy this year’s models that they will only arrive in March or April,’ Lucky Motors Sales Manager Stepan Pidzhakov explained to an UrBC reporter. ‘For the time being, such customers interested in the newest models can sign a preliminary delivery agreement with us. The minimum down payment will come to 10,000 RUR in this case. One has to bear in mind that the price is only a preliminary one as well, so the customer agreement states that it

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Russian Federation Federal Security Service did not offer any license allowing OOO Inbank to use or distribute any cryptographic aids,’ the division’s press secretary Anna Lastovetskaya informed UrBC. In the meantime, Inbank (formerly known as OOO Uran) keeps testing its Internet-Bank system for the last month and uses it to handle the payments of its private and business customers. Under the current legislation, such services must be licensed. ‘The Federal Act 128 on licensing states that banking activity falls under the provisions described in Article 17

Head of the Federal Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Surveillance Service of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kutyin confirmed a timetable for carrying out scheduled inspections of various Russian enterprises in 2010. For one, the Service’s head office and its regional branches are going to carry out thorough inspections of OAO NK Rosneft, OOO Evraz Holding, OAO Uralkhim, OAO Lukoil, and OAO Gazprom. The companies will be checked for compliance with the industrial safety requirements. As it happens, an explosion occurred at Evraz’s Yestyuninskaya mine based in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk

‘Setting up hubs is a common thing among foreign airports. Given Koltsovo Airport’s advantageous geographical position and Sverdlovsk Region’s economic situation, we’ve got some excellent prospects for developing into a hub. Small airports are really having a hard time because they have to transfer passengers to Moscow first and only then take them further. Koltsovo, however, intends to compete with Moscow airports by eliminating the connecting flights problems. It’s obvious that connecting flights through Moscow have a number of drawbacks, particularly geographical ones,’ General Director of

‘Last year was rather difficult for our business. An airport is a sort of an acid test for a region’s economy: once the metallurgical, machine-building, and other regional industries have faced the hard times, our passenger turnover decreased by 14.2%,’ General Director of Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport Evgeniy Chudnovskiy announced at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. The airport reports the number of sorties dropped by 15.9% in 2009 compared two 2008 and reached 13,798 sorties altogether. The passenger turnover totaled to 2,169,136 people last year; the number of people using

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has already informed its readers a number of times that Vladimir Frolov’s new banking project will probably be called Inbank. This news was now officially confirmed by the entry in the Bank of Russia’s bank register. OOO Inbank was formerly known as OOO Uran Commercial Bank, run by former BOD Chairman of Bank Severnaya Kazna Vladimir Frolov for the last few months. The media first announced that Frolov’s business would probably be called Inbank after several similar domain names had been registered by Vassiliy Yurchenko (who is close

Bank Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank) paid back to Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation nearly 1.5 billion RUR spent on the bank’s financial recovery. Within this sum, 1 billion RUR constitutes the main debt and 0.49 billion RUR makes up the interest, the spokesperson for Deposit Insurance Agency informed UrBC. All in all, about 7.8 billion RUR was spent in the effort to save the bank from collapsing. Bank Severnaya Kazna found itself on the brink of bankruptcy at the end of 2008 and was unable to restore its liquidity level independently. As a result, the bank got a new owner,

The internal rules and policy of Alfa-Bank, LOKO-Bank, and Bank Vozrozhdeniye, as well as of a number of other banks, have not been approved of by the Federal Financial Market Service of the Russian Federation so as to counteract laundering proceeds from criminal activity as well as terrorist financing.

‘Our goal was to undertake the financial recovery of banks with some liquidity shortage but functional business processes and capable of making profit. However, it is only Gazenergobank that has shown some signs of final recovery this year,’ Vice President for Credit Risks of Life Group’s Probusinessbank Yaroslav Alekseyev said to Kommersant. For one, Bank24.ru, which was faced with a severe liquidity outflow at the end of 2008, was unable to cope with its problems itself and had to undergo financial recovery procedures. The bank was acquired by Probusinessbank (Life Financial Group); the new

Uralkaliy’s output of marketable potassium chloride decreased by 45.3% last year compared to the year 2008 and came down to 2.62 million tons. The company reports the drop in output has to do with the plummeting global demand for potassium-based fertilizers, which, in its turn, was brought about by the world economic recession. ‘After our customers started buying less potassium chloride on some market, the company was forced to remain partially idle throughout the entire year 2009,’ Uralkaliy reports. The company’s net profit dropped by three times in the first half of 2009 compared with the

President of MMK Management Company Viktor Rashnikov recently signed a special order that launches an energy-saving program at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and other divisions of MMK Group in 2010. According to the company’s Information and PR Department, such programs get updated and are implemented within the enterprise on a yearly basis, but the current economic recession has made these programs more important than ever before. The program provides for implementation of measures aimed at reduced electricity, fuel, heat, and air separation products spending as well as at

The Russian banks’ total share of overdue debt might amount to 9%-11% of their lending portfolio by the middle of the year, the Bank of Russia’s Banking Regulation and Surveillance Director Alexei Simanovskiy said to RIA Novosti. ‘If the current trend carries on, the share of overdue debt will probably amount to about 7% of the lending portfolio, with figures calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards. Added to this is 1% to 2% of the so-called postponed debt that the banks are officially allowed not to declare until July 1, 2010. This is done under the Bank of Russia’s

Austrian Airlines’ Yekaterinburg representation is going to close down soon. The company is to operate its last flights on March 26, 2010. ‘The local office has to stop operating due to economic reasons. The office employees will be offered jobs at the company’s representations in other Russian cities. This representation’s Director is also getting transferred to another place,’ the local office representative informed UrBC. ‘The instructions to this extent were delivered from the carrier’s headquarters in English,’ the office representative added. Austrian Airlines set up an office in

The year 2009 was marked by the impressive inflow of private individuals’ investments. According to Finance magazine, the total volume of deposits opened at the Russian banks by private customers increased by 18.5% since the beginning of January 2009 and reached more than 7 trillion RUR on December 1, 2009. A number of provincial banks were even more successful in this respect than the country’s average figures might suggest. For one, SKB-Bank witnessed an 81.7% increase in the volume of private individuals’ deposits over January-November 2009. The Finance magazine reports this makes SKB-Bank

Rus-Bank-Ural (formerly known as OAO KB Ural Treasures Bank) was merged with Rus-Bank on January 22, 2010, the Yekaterinburg-based bank’s official website states. In accordance with Article 58 of the Russian Federation Civil Code, Rus-Bank will act as a legal successor of Rus-Bank-Ural’s rights and obligations and will thus be in charge of all the contracts signed within the reorganized banking structures. Rus-Bank acquired Yekaterinburg-based Ural Treasures Bank in December 2007, raising its share in the local bank’s authorized capital from 0.0078% to 98.42%. On September 4, 2008 Ural

The volume of deposits opened by private individuals at Sberbank of Russia went up by 20.9% and reached 3.776 trillion RUR in 2009. According to the bank’s official report, the total increase came to 652 billion RUR in absolute figures, with 232 billion RUR coming in December 2009. This was probably because Russian companies paid various end-of-year bonuses to their employees. ‘The stable increase in private investment helped Sberbank maintain a high liquidity level and make up for the outflow of business customer investment (businesses withdrew 76 billion RUR from Sberbank last year). Also,

Bank Koltso Urala decided to invest money in the construction of a specialized two-storey BMW automobile center in Yekaterinburg. According to the bank’s Customer Relations Director Danil Abramov, the decision was taken as early as last year; this project lies within the framework of the bank’s cooperation with BauerHof, BMW’s official dealer. ‘We are through with all the negotiation stages by now; Koltso Urala has already transferred the first installment worth several scores of millions (the currency is Russian rubles) to the builders,’ Abramov said. The legendary car brand’s new sales

The regional branches of Rosgosstrakh Group’s ten insurance companies have recently been merged into a single federal company Rosgosstrakh (RGS). The new organization’s authorized capital is estimated at 8.1 billion RUR, the insurer’s official report states. The initial idea was to have consolidated the company through merging nine provincial insurance companies with OOO RGS-Stolitsa. These nine insurers were OOO RGS-Accord, OOO RGS-Dalniy Vostok, OOO RGS-Povolzhye, OOO RGS-Severo-Zapad, OOO RGS-Siberia, OOO RGS-Tatarstan, OOO RGS-Ural, OOO RGS-Center, and OOO RGS-Yug.