‘It’s possible that VEK’s proposal to buy UralTransBank’s shares was an attempt to consolidate the bank’s assets in order to sell the business to a large strategic investor later. UralTransBank has ten subsidiaries and thirty-five offices, which makes it a strong regional financial structure,’ says Finam Management’s Alexander Osin. Ural Transport Bank’s Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders should accept VEK’s proposal to buy the bank’s ordinary registered uncertified shares. On June 28, 2008, VEK sent an obligatory notification to Uraltransbank, proposing to buy the bank’s

The Deposit Insurance Agency reports people deposited 11.9% more money in the Russian banks in the first half of the year compared to a year earlier. At the same time, some provincial banks did even better than the country’s average. The volume of money placed by private individuals with SKB-Bank, for instance, went up by 38% in January-June 2008.

Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee reports 127 car-washing installations are operating in the city at the moment, while the number of cars comes to 360 automobiles per every one hundred dwellers. To make sure the already-existing cars are properly taken care of, Yekaterinburg needs some 230 car washes. The only reason why there are still not enough installations is the shortage of available land allotments.

The Russian Federation public prosecution authorities report Russia and Italy actually don’t have any bilateral agreement on extraditing people suspected of criminal offenses. Russian authorities sent their request to extradite Bank24.ru’s former BOD member Alexei Kalinichenko on the basis of the 1957 European Convention (the convention was ratified and came into force in Italy in 1963). ‘Alexei Kalinichenko was detained in Italy on June 4, 2007, and on July 3, 2008, the General Prosecutor’s Office’s Administration for International Legal Cooperation sent their query to the Italian

‘Our latest campaign targeted at introducing some new ways of working with businesses (known as Business Packages for Legal Entities) has resulted in some good outcomes. The bank’s partners proved very interested in this innovational offer, so over 50% of business customers’ accounts in URSA Bank’s Tyumen branch have been switched to one or another business package by June 20, 2008. In addition, about seventy new legal entities have set up accounts there over the last three months. All of them chose our Acquaintance package,’ Director of URSA Bank’s Tyumen branch Olga Kalyuzhnaya said to

Timothy Sandusky, the new U.S. Consul General, arrived in Yekaterinburg last Friday. The spokesperson for the Consulate reports Mr. Sandusky has been working for the U.S. State Department since 1984, mainly holding offices related to political issues and consulate affairs. In 1990-1992, he was working in the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Besides, Mr. Sandusky was employed at diplomatic missions in Poland, Guyana, and Indonesia. Prior to his appointment as Yekaterinburg’s Consul General, the official was holding office in the U.S. State Department’s Analytical Section and in

‘It’s possible that VEK’s proposal to buy UralTransBank’s shares was an attempt to consolidate the bank’s assets in order to sell the business to a large strategic investor later. UralTransBank has ten subsidiaries and thirty-five offices, which makes it a strong regional financial structure,’ says Finam Management’s Alexander Osin. Ural Transport Bank’s Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders should accept VEK’s proposal to buy the bank’s ordinary registered uncertified shares. On June 28, 2008, VEK sent an obligatory notification to Uraltransbank, proposing to buy the bank’s

This year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) intends to invest over $2bn in capital development. MMK’s BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov says this amount is comparable with the sum invested by the enterprise over a whole decade, that is, between 1996 and 2005. Besides, the two-billion-dollar figure comes to twice the amount directed to the company’s capital development last year. This large-scale investment is expected to result in greater production output, a wider range of products, better quality of produce, a bigger share of high-level processing goods, fewer material resource

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) got some of the best positions in Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt’s rating of Russian metallurgical enterprises. The magazine’s new issue featured the rating of these companies’ performance in the first half of 2008. Their assessment is based on the customers’ applications and a survey of marketing experts. The magazine reports they used criteria like shipments volume, services, quality of produce, and meeting one’s contractual obligations as well as the factors that have influenced the home market since the beginning of the year. MMK is still one of the

SKB-Bank is to raise the interest rates it offers on its ruble deposit types by 1% (compared with June 30, 2008) on August 1, 2008. The bank’s Deposit Operations Director Denis Belogurov says this new offer involves their World Standard and Gold Standard deposit schemes. ‘The summer season is coming to an end, and people usually get more active business-wise around this time of the year. This is why we decided to raise the interest rates, reacting partly to ongoing inflation rate growth and trying to keep to our levelheaded interest-setting policy at the same time. SKB-Bank last went through

Ural Transport Bank’s Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders should accept VEK’s proposal to buy the bank’s ordinary registered uncertified shares. VEK sent an obligatory notification to Uraltransbank, proposing to buy the bank’s 109,447,465 ordinary registered uncertified shares for 6.61 RUR apiece. The bank must accept the proposal or come up with its terms within seventy days of receiving this notification. This compulsory purchase procedure was guaranteed by Bank Severnaya Kazna. At the moment, the company’s majority shareholder is Valeriy Zavodov, who owns a 37.77%

The Seventh Court of Appeals looked into the appeal placed by URSA Bank and satisfied the company’s claim on July 28, 2008. Thus the court’s ruling did not support Novosibirsk Region Court of Arbitration’s decision made on May 29, 2008 and Novosibirsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service’s provision made on March 31, 2008. The provision had to do with the administrative prosecution of URSA Bank for violating the advertising legislation. The Court of Appeals saw no violations of the existing legislation in the bank’s ads known as Numbers That Make You Happy and Visa Credit Card.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinance to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 79.35% (from 165.524 million RUR to 34.166 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in VUZ Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 25.05% (from 139.374 million RUR to 104.457 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

UC RUSAL’s Ural smelter had its environmental protection lab certified recently. ‘The accrediting certificate was issued by the Federal Agency for Technical Regulations and Metrology and proved the lab’s independence and competence in environmental monitoring,’ says UC RUSAL’s local press officer Roman Lukichev. The enterprise’s lab has some 150 pieces of equipment meant for controlling the smelter’s environmental safety at the moment. ‘The lab experts carry out over 3,000 measuring procedures each month and regularly come up with new proposals on improving the plant’s conservational policies

‘I believe Sverdlovsk Region has great potential for drawing up and implementing some multi-faceted area development projects,’ region’s Duma Deputy Galina Artemieva said to UrBC. The Russian Government stated recently that the federation’s constituent entities with special long-term multi-faceted area development programs were going to receive some substantial funding from the federal authorities meant for putting up engineering and social infrastructures. Apart from such projects, the region must deal in some state-private partnership projects (involving some large-scale investors)

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development came up with a new mortgage offer for its customers: private individuals can now apply for a loan that allows one to buy an apartment in the building currently under construction, the bank’s press officer reports. The program differs nicely from its many counterparts in that it provides for some of the market’s lowest interest rates for the construction period. The interest comes to 14.25% to 15.25% a year while the apartment is still being built (no collateral is required) and to 12.5% to 13.5% a year after the finished dwelling can be

Mechel-Bank introduced its new office (known as Sverdlovsk Department) at 14 Sverdlov St. in Yekaterinburg on July 30, 2008. The opening ceremony was attended by President and BOD member of Ural Financial Holding (which Mechel-Bank is a part of) Vladimir Shulgin, Mechel-Bank’s Chair of the Supervisory Board Elena Nesterova, Mechel-Bank’s Yekaterinburg branch CEO Evgeniy Esselevitch, head of Sverdlovsk Department Elena Albycheva, and the new office’s first customers. Sverdlovsk Department is going to render a full range of services to both businesses and private customers, including the

Regarding the information released by some media about alleged talks being underway between Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin on merging of UC RUSAL and Norilsk Nickel, UC RUSAL states the following: Oleg Deripaska does not carry out any talks with Vladimir Potanin about a possible merger of UC RUSAL and Norilsk Nickel. No confidentiality agreement has been discussed or signed between them. UC RUSAL considers its acquisition of 25% plus two shares as a strategic investment and still intends to pursue all legal remedies to protect its interests as the company’s shareholder.

Ural Treasures Bank changed the terms of its Elite and Elite Plus deposits on July 30, 2008. The minimum amount of money you can place with the bank when opening Elite Plus has deposit been decreased to 1 million RUR; the minimum amount of money that you can top up your deposit account with now comes to 100,000 RUR. Both deposit types’ interest is paid on the last working day of the month and at the end of the deposit period; the money is transferred into the customer’s special account. In addition, the bank’s customers can get a Visa Gold или MasterCard without the down payment and a card