The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development holds a special offer for its bank card holders between December 1, 2008, and January 31, 2009. The offer is available in all the ten Russian regions and cities where the bank’s offices operate, that is, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions, Bashkortostan, Perm, Kirov, Saratov, Voronezh, Izhevsk, Orenburg, and Moscow. ‘Our bank cards are both a convenient way of making payments and a chance to get a nice gift. When one has a bank card issued by our bank, one gets a guaranteed 3,000-ruble money bonus transferred in one’s bank account (in case a

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in VUZ-Bank valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 272 million RUR, or 11,77% (from 2,312,029,000 RUR to 2,039,797,000 RUR) in October 2008.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is planning to buy less electric power from its suppliers and support its own electricity production within the framework of its anti-crisis package, the enterprise’s BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov said. MMK’s PR Department reports the company used to be able to fully provide for its electricity needs as recently as a few years ago, but, after a series of new production facilities were launched (including an arc-furnace shop), about 200 megawatts had to be purchased from outside suppliers. Now that the general production output has gone down, MMK’s

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 368 million RUR, or 14.75% (from 2,498,898,000 RUR to 2,130,191,000 RUR) in October 2008.

‘Bank Severnaya Kazna’s acquisition by Alfa Bank can be considered a good buy. The latter has been trying to attract some investment resources for business development for several years now. They did this trough bonded loans, but the sums thus obtained were not too impressive, whereas the interest rate was high enough,’ says Unicom Partner Investment & Finance Company’s Deputy GD for Corporate Consulting Dmitriy Zemerov. Bank Severnaya Kazna sold its controlling shareholding to Alfa Bank, Alfa Bank’s official statement featured via Bank Severnaya Kazna’s website reports. ‘One can say that

Starting October 8, 2008, Ural Airlines is to operate more Yekaterinburg-Khabarovsk flights. These will now be available two times a week and are to be operated using an A 320 airplane, the company’s press officer reports. The plane leaves Yekaterinburg at 9.20 PM every Monday and Friday and arrives in Khabarovsk at 10.40 AM on Tuesdays and Saturdays, respectively. Then, the plane tales off in Khabarovsk at 12.40 AM on Tuesdays and Saturdays and lands in Yekaterinburg at 5.20 PM. There is a stop in Novosibirsk on the way.

‘This isn’t the first time we’re going through a crisis, and so we more or less know what to do. We actually take the standard steps like reviewing our operational and capital expenses and cutting back on or canceling out the unnecessary ones, as well as making our managerial teams more efficient,’ Pipe Metallurgical Company’s General Director Alexander Shiryaev said in the course of his interview to Vedomosti. ‘For one, we will have to give up the idea of putting up a steel-smelting complex at Tagmet in Taganrog and the FQM continuous mill at Severskiy plant in 2009. Instead, the better part

‘The opening ceremony of the five-star hotel has been scheduled for the second half of December 2008 when al the necessary documents hopefully get processed by the state board of experts,’ the spokesperson for Hyatt Regency Ekaterinburg explained to an UrBC reporter. However, the hotel management reported earlier that the opening would take place on December 1, 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-state financial organizations’ deposits in Kreditniy Agroprombank valid for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 26.9%m or 82 million RUR (from 221.95 million RUR to 139.82 million RUR) in October 2008.

‘It’s been four weeks since our special New Year’s Tale project was launched, and increasingly more customers keep winning the prizes awarded by the bank. This means the happy holiday spirit brings the winter holiday season even closer,’ the bank’s press officer reports. ‘People normally exchange gifts and come up with all sorts of surprises for their nearest and dearest at New Year. However, getting a present before the holiday comes is even nicer, as it makes the wait itself so much more exciting. This is why we are giving out our presents now, and we get more and more winners every day,’

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch’s A Million-Dollar Success Story project that was started in October 2008 is now coming to an end. Over fifty Yekaterinburg dwellers contributed to the project with their success stories, with seven finalists featured in Channel 4’s Morning Express show. The winners are to be determined by an open online voting. The first prize is a 30,000-ruble deposit in Sberbank and a chance to win a million rubles, the spokesperson for the bank reports. The finalists’ stories are available through the bank’s website, where one can also vote for the chosen candidate. The

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Bank Severnaya Kazna valid for 1 to 3 years went down by over 2.6 billion RUR (from 11,946,481,000 RUR to 9,283,507,000 RUR) in October 2008.

‘Because we are experiencing some order shortage at the moment, we have to take steps to be able to keep our skilled workers employed,’ Severskiy Pipe Plant’s (Pipe Metallurgical Company) HR Director Tatiana Korobeinikova said in the course of Sverdlovsk Region’s trilateral employer-employee relationship committee’s meeting. ‘Firstly, we’ve stopped hiring new workers for the time being. Secondly, 33% of our staff have had to switch to a short day mode. Thirdly, a portion of workers with varied skills have been transferred to some other departments and shops. Then, all those willing to do so

‘All the issues related to our crisis-defying action plan will be looked into at a special meeting each month,’ Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin said in the course of a meeting attended by the heads of the regional municipalities and districts. ‘We’ll investigate these issues in all seriousness, because the situation itself is grave enough. The crisis is to hit Chelyabinsk Region harder than many other Russian regions, as 63% of our industry is made up of metallurgical enterprises, which also means these enterprises’ taxes form over a third of the region’s consolidated budget.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Uralprivatbank valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 37% (from 221.95 million RUR to 139.82 million RUR) in October 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in UralFinPromBank valid for 91 to 180 days plummeted by 98.96% (from 57.7 million RUR to 600,000 RUR) in October 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Bank Severnaya Kazna valid for over three years went down by 31.80% (from 1,462,652,000 RUR to 997,505,000 RUR) in October 2008.

Bank24.ru stopped handling all kinds of interbank transfers, Banki.ru reports. ‘The customers are temporarily unable to make any external payments either at the bank’s offices or through ATMs or Internet Bank system,’ says Banki.ru referring to the bank’s call-center. What is more, Bank24.ru has introduced new limits on getting cash in any of its terminals. The maximum amount of money one can get now comes to 1,000 RUR a day and to 10,000 RUR a month.

‘I happen to have three deposits in Bank24.ru, that is, one ruble one, one dollar one, and one euro one. The bank set a daily limit of 2,000 RUR and a monthly limit of 10,000 RUR in October. Now once can only cash in 1,000 RUR a day. Besides, one used to be able to use the bank card to pay for at least $500 worth of purchase or make non-cash payments through Internet Bank, but we were deprived even of this on November 21, 2008,’ Bank24.ru’s customer Sergey Novikov said to UrBC. ‘I don’t have any source of income for the time being. I thought I had a sort of backup at the bank that I had been

URSA Bank came up with a new offer for its business customers, who can now get some interest for remainder of the money in their account. This means these customers can make their account balance yield some income. ‘The offer is targeted at active companies who happen to have some money left in their settlement accounts and whose business activity peculiarities require that the money should be available at any given moment,’ the bank’s press officer explains. The interest is paid on a daily basis in the morning of each transaction day, with interest rates varying from .1% to 6% depending on