‘METCOMBANK has been concentrating on bank card projects for the last few years, and without our own processing center, we had to use the services of one Moscow-based bank. But this gradually proved insufficient, we kept facing certain technical limitations that the current scheme could not overcome,’ METCOMBANK’s Plastic Cards Director Alexander Peshin said to UrBC. ‘So we finally decided to set up our own processing center. The center is nearly ready to be launched and is expected to start operating at the beginning of July 2008. After we switch to the new processing system (provided for us

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank valid for 1 to 3 years plummeted by 100% (from 16.514 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Bank24.ru valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 85.55% (from 191.292 million RUR to 27.636 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

FINAM Investment Company reduced its just price assessment of Uralsvyazinform’s ordinary shares from $.064 to $.063; FINAM believes the mobile and landline operator’s preference shares must drop from $.04 to $.034. The company still feels it’s best not to sell the shares right now. Apart from that, FINAM’s analysts believe Uralsvyazinform is slightly overpriced at the moment and see no noticeable factors that could enhance the operator’s worth. FINAM’s assessment of Uralsvyazinform’s shares was modified after the investment company’s experts looked into the operator’s audited non-consolidated

‘In case a customer finds out the car they bought is defective, both the producer factory and the dealer must be responsible for handling the problem,’ Chairman of Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee Andrei Artemiev said to UrBC. According to certain customers, Yekaterinburg-based Okami Vostok has sold cars with flaws that remained unheeded during the pre-sale preparation. Andrei Artemiev believes it’s not for the customer to worry over how the car factory and the dealer are going to fix the problem. The main thing is for the defect to be rectified. ‘Should the dealer or the producer

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to private individuals for 31 to 90 days plummeted by 83.99% (from 2.105 million RUR to 337,000 RUR) in January-May 2008.

The Australian Ausmelt Limited won the second prize in the Metal Production category in the course of the annual PACE Zenith contest for its Zvezda project implemented by Russian Copper Company in the town of Karabash. The awarding ceremony took place in Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia, on June 18, 2008. The contest was coordinated by Process and Control Engineering, the Australian magazine, in order to motivate the world’s leading engineering enterprises and technological innovators as well as to help them become known to the public. ‘This is a significant achievement and a sign of great

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits in Uralprivatbank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 27.73% (from 3.866 million RUR to 2.794 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to URSA Bank’s unaudited financial statement (drawn up in compliance with the Russian accounting standards), the bank’s assets reached $7.5bn in January-March 2008, which is 1.5 times better than a year earlier. The bank’s own funds doubled over the year and amounted to $1.29bn. At the same time, URSA Bank’s profit came to $66.3m in the first quarter of 2008, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 2.7 times. The bank’s net loan portfolio reached $5.8bn on April 1, 2008, which was 1.6 times better than on April 1, 2007. Bad debt (with payments delayed for over ninety days)

According to the data available as of June 1, 2008, the volume of private customers’ investments in SKB-Bank exceeded 11.5 billion RUR, which is 34% better than at the beginning of the year and is the top growth achievement among all the Ural banks. ‘This growth dynamics can be explained by a number of factors, for instance, our convenient and profitable deposit offers as well as the image we managed to create of being a stable and reliable financial body,’ says SKB-Bank’s Deposit Director Denis Belogurov.

Mars Sharafulin and UMMC’s clash over who gets to control Demidov Business Center of Yekaterinburg moved into a new phase after the former acquired Lobvinskiy biochemical plant. This alcohol-producing plant, formerly owned by Pavel Fedulev, a local entrepreneur, had gone bankrupt. In April 2008, some workers went on a hunger strike, demanding their wages and resumption of work. The hunger strike was only stopped after Sverdlovsk Region Government decided to sell the plant to an investor who would pay off the enterprise’s debts and could spend some money on the technical upgrades. Finding such

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank valid for 31 to 90 days dropped by 49.50% (from 20.001 million RUR to 10.1 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of private individuals’ demand deposits in Bank Uralfinance went down by 30.34% (from 16.047 million RUR to 11.178 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘Any flaws that a car might have can only be handled through the dealer network. In case the problem originated at the plant, the dealer must contact the plant through the maintenance department and find a solution,’ Taganrog car factory’s Marketing Director Marina Zavolzhenskaya said to UrBC. In the meantime, one of Yekaterinburg-based Okami Vostok’s customers bought a Hyundai Accent with an air conditioner in March 2008; as soon as the hot summer days came, it became clear that the conditioner was not working. The car owner believes that despite the pre-sale preparation, the car sold by the

‘Okami Vostok should have checked whether the air conditioner was working during their pre-sale preparation,’ Autosun car center reports. One of Yekaterinburg-based Okami Vostok’s customers bought a Hyundai Accent with an air conditioner in March 2008; as soon as the hot summer days came, it became clear that the conditioner was not working. The car owner believes that despite the pre-sale preparation, the car sold by the dealer was initially defective. Okami’s experts think the faulty condition emerged in the process of manufacturing the car. According to the unhappy customer, Okami Vostok

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UniCreditBank to nonresident legal entities for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 72.49% (from 1,684,827,000 RUR to 463,483,000 RUR) in January-May 2008.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development Finance (a daughter enterprise fully owned by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development) declared the interest rates on the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th coupons of its second three-year bond issues. The coupon rates will thus come to 12.5% a year, or 31.16 RUR per each 1,000-ruble bond. The issuer will have to pay a total of 31.16 million RUR on each coupon period. After the 8th coupon payments are made on July 3, 2008, an offer will be provided for the bondholders. The bonds are to be fully retired on July 2, 2009. The bondholders will receive

‘We used to think of the Academic construction project as a future ambition, but it is now becoming a part of our present,’ says Yekaterinburg’s Deputy Mayor for Capital Construction and Land Use Vladimir Kritskiy. RENOVA-StroyGroup’s top executives and Vladimir Kritskiy recently met to discuss the city’s future district. Project manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin assured the officials that everything was being done in accordance with the schedule. ‘To make sure all the schedules can be adhered to, we need to handle the issues related to engineering infrastructure and road construction first of

According to URSA Bank’s unaudited financial statement (drawn up in compliance with the Russian accounting standards), the bank’s assets reached $7.5bn in January-March 2008, which is 1.5 times better than a year earlier; at the same time, URSA Bank’s net profit came to over $66m, the bank’s press officer reports.

Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation (consisting of Yekaterinburg-based Uralmashzavod and Orsk-based ORMETO-YUMZ) exhibited its oil rigs, pipes, and winches that the company is manufacturing at the moment on June 17-18, 2008. The event was attended by Eurasia, Rosneft-Bureniye, Ukrgazdobycha, Orenburgneft, Belarusneft, and a number of other O&G companies. Visitors to the presentation could see the design of the third generation drilling units; today’s customers want more durable and more multifunctional equipment, which is why this is what the new units are going to be like. They can be