Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation is going to look into the causes of financial troubles that hit twelve Russian banks that had earlier undergone financial recovery procedures, the Agency’s PR Center informed an UrBC reporter. ‘The inspections of all these twelve insolvency-fighting banks have been planned in advance. In the cases of AKB Electronika, AKB MZB, and KB Moskovskiy Kapital (all of which underwent partial financial recovery, handed their assets and liabilities over to a healthier bank, and then applied for bankruptcy) we are going to investigate why this has happened. In

Starting October 2009, Russian Standard Bank’s customers will have to pay for the details of their accounts they receive in the mail, even though the mailings used to be free earlier, Kommersant reports. The monthly commission comes to 15 RUR; at the same time, all those willing to receive these details via e-mail can use the service for free. Meanwhile, Home Credit and Finance Bank started charging its customers 15 RUR a month for the same service as early as June 16, 2009. The bank reports the commission is necessary to make up for the post office expenses.

The Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Ural branch insists on having UralOtel’s property arrested; the estate in question comprises UralOtel at 23 Khomyakov St., Yekaterinburg, Atlantic Hotel, and Yekaterininskaya Hotel. The bank placed a corresponding claim with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court after UralOtel’s loan agreement debt amounted to more than $3.76m. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff’s claims and arrested the building at 9 Lenin Ave. as well as a 1,166-square-meter land allotment. The next court hearing has been scheduled for September 9, 2009, the

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) looked into the results of its environmental management system’s performance in the first half of 2009. This system was actually certified for compliance with the international ISO 14001: 2004 standards. According to MMK’s PR Department, the enterprise managed to reduce its gross emission rates by 9.4% against the first half of 2008. Then, the company’s filtering and recycling facilities processed 3.2 million tons of metallurgical slag into 222,000 tons of metal. What is more, MMK reused 760,000 tons of waste for sintering mix and directed over 3

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) looked into the results of its environmental management system’s performance in the first half of 2009. This system was actually certified for compliance with the international ISO 14001: 2004 standards. According to MMK’s PR Department, the enterprise managed to reduce its gross emission rates by 9.4% against the first half of 2008. Then, the company’s filtering and recycling facilities processed 3.2 million tons of metallurgical slag into 222,000 tons of metal. What is more, MMK reused 760,000 tons of waste for sintering mix and directed over 3

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service declared that MRSK Urala and the Regional Network Company were guilty of violating Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Federal Competition Protection Act, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The offense consisted in the two parties’ colluding over imposing unappealing terms of electricity network access on GSK-50. Namely, GSK-50 had to pay for the hookup of Regional Network Company’s facilities to those of MRSK Urala, their intermediary. The Service’s regional division chose not to institute legal proceedings against

‘Absolut Bank is trying to get the debts from Pnevmostroymashina; these debts stem from two loan agreements that we have. The sum we are claiming comes from these two agreements’ principal debt, the interest, and the late payment interests on the principal debt and the interest,’ AKB Absolut Bank’s Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Anatoly Maksakov said to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is now looking into the claim laid by the bank’s Yekaterinburg division against Pnevmostroymashina and PSM-Gidravlika; the bank insists on being paid 217.7 million RUR.

KD Avia Airlines stopped offering tickets for sale and informed Rosaviation that they might stop operating any flights in the near future. According to Kommersant, this decision probably stems from the fact that the airline never received the 4 billion RUR of governmental aid that had been allocated to the carrier as early as July 2009. Moreover, Kaliningrad Region authorities apparently failed to carry out an additional share issue for the airline. KD Avia actually operates a number of flights from Yekaterinburg to Kaliningrad. The carrier initially announced a halt in the flight operations

Evraz Group, the mining and metallurgical giant, sustained major losses in the first half of 2009 after a number of payments had to be written off, Rosbalt reports. The enterprise’s net loss amounted to $999m against $2.04bn worth of profits in the first half of 2008. ‘The ongoing economic recession has affected our investments and infrastructure development projects rather badly; what is more, the demand for steel has gone down on our key markets,’ Rosbalt quoted Evraz President Alexander Frolov as saying. The company’s revenues nosedived by 57% in the six months of 2009, that is, against

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin signed a decree providing some budget-based loans to the town of Kopeisk and to Uvelskiy district. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Kopeisk received 43 million RUR to complete its kindergarten meant for 220 children. Uvelskiy district was given 19.6 million RUR to make all the necessary social benefit payments. These budget-based loans are provided by the Governor for a three-year period, with the interest rate coming to one-quarter of the Central Bank’s refinancing rate (as of the day the loan agreement was signed). The first such loan

Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) made Bank24.ru face administrative liability for violating the existing advertising legislation, the spokesperson for the service reports. The division took legal action against the bank on June 3, 2009 after a complaint had been placed by a Yekaterinburg dweller. The applicant claimed he had received two advertisements in the form of text messages from Bank24.ru between February 13, 2009 and February 17, 2009. However, the man never provided the bank with any written consent to receiving such ads. On July 2, 2009, the FAS’s

‘I asked my administration’s surveillance department to set up an ad hoc committee that will look into the activity of Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Enterprise’s management over the last couple of months. The main idea behind these checks is to assess the company’s current performance and to understand just what is going on,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel said in the course of his traditional monthly press conference.

Avtosan car show may soon become Ford’s new official dealer in Yekaterinburg. The center is already representing Hyundai, Nissan, Fiat, Ssang Yong, and Mazda in the city at the moment. Ford Motor Company launched a tender for the position a little while ago; for the time being, the brand’s only Yekaterinburg representative is Autoland Holding. ‘Preference will be given to candidates with some successful experience of doing car business in the region, provided they produce some documented proof of their rights over the land allotment and the buildings that they plan to use for the show room.

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport raised its jet fuel prices by 4.9%, so the price now comes to 17,780 RUR per ton. The airport last introduced the price changes on June 11, 2009 by decreasing the price by 7.1%. Meanwhile, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into the case related to the airport’s accusations of violating the federal Competition Protection Act (namely, Article 10 (part 1, paragraph 1). The airport is allegedly guilty of setting and maintaining monopolistically high ground service prices. For one, this includes the fees for a

The district division of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs keeps investigating the case involving theft of the Russian Pension Fund’s 955.8 million RUR deposited at Bank VEFK Ural. ‘In the course of the inquiry, some instances of financial frauds and mercenary crimes were detected, with the bank’s Chair as the main suspect. In fact, Olga Chechushkova has already been arrested and placed into a detention ward upon the Ural Federal District division of the General Prosecutor’s Office’s demand,’ the spokesperson for the division announced today. The court actually turned down

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is now looking into the claim laid by Bank Société Générale Vostok against Pnevmostroymashina. The plaintiff insists on being paid 21.89 million RUR (which includes 20 million RUR worth of overdue debts, 498,082.19 RUR worth of interest, 720,291.94 RUR in terms of interest debt, 641,095.89 RUR as a penalty for overdue loan payments, and 31,703.1 RUR as a penalty for failing to pay the interest). In addition, the bank insists on having the company’s hypothecated shifting stock of merchandise arrested, with the goods’ initial selling value equaled to

Head of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Administration Alexander Levin and First Deputy Head of Government for Economic Policies and Prospective Development, Minister of Economics and Labor Mikhail Maksimov took part in the recession-fighting team meeting under the Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative Vladimir Krupkin. Mikhail Maksimov reported the unemployment rate remained virtually the same last week, with about 87,300 jobless registered in the region by August 26, 2009.

Autoland Holding might no longer be Yekaterinburg’s only official Ford dealer: ‘Ford Motor Company is trying to build its share of the Russian market on the whole and of Yekaterinburg one in particular. This is why Ford is now coordinating a tender for another dealer in Yekaterinburg,’ Ford Motor Company’s PR Director Ekaterina Kulinenko said to an UrBC reporter. ‘Preference will be given to candidates with some successful experience of doing car business in the region, provided they produce some documented proof of their rights over the land allotment and the buildings that they plan to use

On August 26, 2009, MDM Bank made 228.125 million RUR worth of coupon payments on its LPN bond issue. The coupon yield was determined at 9.125% a year. The bank went through with the five-billion-ruble LPN Eurobond issue on February 26, 2007; the bonds are to be in circulation for three years. The issue was instituted by Ireland-based URSA Finance PLC and coordinated by Citigroup and Standard Bank.

‘Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover amounted to $4.5bn in the first half of the year, which was 37% less than a year earlier. The drop can be largely explained by the plummeting metal prices,’ the region’s Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Alexander Kharlov announced at a meeting with the Minister Counsellor (Economic and Trade & Investment) at the UK Embassy in Moscow Caroline Wilson. ‘Nevertheless, the share of exported machine-building produce was actually on the increase. The ministry is now looking for the potential markets and investigating the global