UrBC, Moscow, January 28, 2019. The Russian banking market’s overall assets increased by 6.9% last year, mainly through the banks’ more proactive lending policies. The accumulated loan book (to both private borrowers and non-financial organizations) went up by 10.7% in 2018. The increase was most noticeable in the retail lending sector (+22.8%), the Bank of Russia’s website indicates. According to the Bank of Russia, banks tried to encourage borrowers throughout the year by offering reduced interest rates; a certain upward economic trend and people’s rising disposable incomes were also a

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 25, 2019. MMK Trading House set up a new office in Khabarovsk as part of the strategy to build up the share of the Far East’s rolled metal goods market, MMK Group’s Information & PR Department reports. This is the second branch the company has set up in the Far East, with the first one operating in Vladivostok. Local customers can now choose from the entire range of MMK Group’s rolled metal produce, including flat stock, profiled and section stock, pipes, coated metal goods, heavy-duty rolled products, and metal goods. The outlet can be found at 15 Tselinnaya

UrBC, Moscow, January 25, 2019. Russian banks issued 37.41 million loans to their customers in 2018 (total amount: over RUB 8.61 trillion); this exceeded the previous year’s number of loans by 18%, whereas the total loan amount increased by 46% compared with 2017, Prime refers to United Credit History Bureau as reporting. 3.7 million new loans got issued in December 2018 alone (+6%), with the total amount at more than RUB 895.97 billion (+23%). Credit cards proved the fastest-growing lending market segment: the number of newly issued credit cards rose by 40% against one year earlier, with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2019. Seven workers of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Metallurgical Plant (NTMK) received government awards; the awarding decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The solemn awarding ceremony took place at Sevastyanov House in Yekaterinburg; the medals were presented by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev. Six EVRAZ employees - turner from the Beam-Rolling Department Vladimir Kochanov; repair technician from the Blast Furnace Department Vladimir Kravchenko; Converter Shop’s Deputy

UrBC, Moscow, January 25, 2019. The bill allowing the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office to look into data on Russian officials’ foreign bank accounts passed its third reading at the State Duma’s last plenary session on Thursday, January 24. ‘The Russian Federation Prosecutor-General’s Office may, if necessary, ask the Russian Central Bank (which, in its turn, will enquire with the foreign countries’ central banks or other regulatory bodies in the finance sector) for data on foreign bank accounts/deposits in the name of individuals who are legally not allowed to open/hold accounts or keep

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2019. Ural Airlines are now selling tickets for their direct, scheduled Zhukovsky-Paris-Zhukovsky flights, which will get operated starting April 23, 2019, the air carrier’s press service reports. Flight U6 759/760 will get operated thrice a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Departure (Zhukovsky Airport, Moscow Region): 10:45 AM, departure (Paris): 2:45 PM. Prices start from RUB 4,639 (one way). ‘The spring comes early in Paris, so the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de Paris, Moulin Rouge, and the Palace of Versailles look particularly spectacular and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) coordinated a financial literacy/money-earning workshop for Yekaterinburg children as part of the bank’s Children Believe in Miracles Charity Program, the bank’s press service reports. One goal of the program is to teach children how money can be made and spent wisely. Shortly before New Year, the workshop’s young participants made souvenir magnets with the program logo; the bank suggested that UBRD employees buy these. There were so many people willing to support the initiative and get the

UrBC, Moscow, January 24, 2019. Following a meeting of Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry representatives with Director of Denezhkin Kamen National Park in Moscow, Head of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Area of Development of Protected Areas Alexei Titovsky contacted Rosprirodnadzor’s administration, asking to look closely into the situation in Sverdlovsk Region’s north, Zhivoy Shemur’s press service reports. The meeting was dedicated to environmental problems in the north of Sverdlovsk Region and to Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company’s asset Svyatogor polluting

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2019. MegaFon Ural now offers its business customers a range of online freight-tracking options, including temperature control and notifications in case a package gets dropped or opened. MegaFon is the first telecommunication service provider to offer local companies its Freight Control package, the company’s press service reports. The freight-tracking options are a good solution for international freight forwarding as well as for domestic shipments, including multimodal forwarding schemes. A special-purpose, autonomous GPS/GLONASS/LBS tracker inside the cargo

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2019. The average amount of a mortgage loan getting issued in Sverdlovsk Region rose by 8.2% in the last quarter of 2018 compared with one year earlier, and thus reached RUB 2,101,402, the National Credit History Bureau’s report states. In Russia on the whole, the average mortgage amount rose by 17.5% in the course of one year and thus reached RUB 2.34 million. Among the forty Russian constituencies with the largest mortgage markets, Moscow, with its average mortgage amount at RUB 4.61 million, was No.1, followed by Moscow Region (RUB 3.46 million), Saint

UrBC, Moscow, January 24, 2019. The Bank of Russia purchased RUB 24.23 billion worth of foreign currency for the Finance Ministry on Monday, January 21, the bank’s reports indicate. The Finance Ministry intends to purchase RUB 265.8bn worth of foreign currency on January 15-February 6, 2019, with the average daily amount at RUB 15.6bn. The foreign currency is getting purchased with the purpose of extracting the additional oil and gas revenues and adding more money to the National Welfare Fund.

UrBC, Moscow, January 23, 2019. Russia’s inflation rate rose from 4.3% in 2018 to 4.7% a year on January 14, 2019, the Economic Development Ministry’s report on inflation in January 2019 indicates. ‘Two inflation-boosting factors came into effect in January 2019, namely, the VAT increase from 18% to 20% and an increase in the cost of utilities by 1.7% starting January 1. As a result, the inflation figures stood at 0.65% on January 1-14, 2019 compared with 0.21% a year earlier. As of January 14, the inflation rate was estimated to speed up to 4.7%,’ the report states. The ministry’s analysts

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 23, 2019. MegaFon Ural’s subscribers are among the country’s most independent people, MegaFon believes: every one in four of My Account users on the company website is based in the Urals, the company’s press service reports. 2.2 million locals prefer to deal with their telecom issues online, with peak on-site presence time between noon and 2 PM. Every one in five users (18%) belongs in the 46-60 age group, while 35% of users are people in the 26-35 age group. The share of those in the 18-22 age bracket comes to 22%. My Account is mostly used to look into one’s

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, January 23, 2019. ChelPipe Group and the All-Russian National Military Patriotic Social Movement Association (Yunarmiya) signed a cooperation agreement. The paper was signed by the Group’s Director-General Boris Kovalenkov and Head of Yunarmiya’s HQ, Hero of Russia, space pilot Roman Romanenko. According to the Group’s press service, the goal is to work together on the initiatives in the field of military training and patriotic values courses for children and teenagers, support physical education and sports projects, and promote and popularize the idea of the Russian Army

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 23, 2019. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers tickets for Yekaterinburg-Kaliningrad-Yekaterinburg flights. Flight U6 403/404 will get operated every Monday and Friday starting from March 22, 2019. According to the air carrier’s press service, the departure time (Yekaterinburg) is 1 PM on Mondays and 11 AM on Fridays; the departure time for the return trip (from Kaliningrad) is 2:40 PM on Mondays and 12:40 PM on Fridays. Prices start from RUB 6,000 and 8,500 (one way). The flights will get operated between March 22, 2019 and December 31, 2019. You can

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 23, 2019. Ural Airlines are now selling tickets for Moscow-Mumbai flights; the very first flight has been scheduled for March 31, 2019; from then on, the flight will get operated four times a week (on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (there)/on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays (back). According to the air carrier’s press service, the departure (Moscow/Domodedovo Airport) and arrival (Mumbai) time is 7:10 PM and 4:45 AM, respectively. For Mumbai-Moscow flight, the departure and arrival time is 5:50 AM and 10:50 AM, respectively. The flights

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, January 22, 2019. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky hosted a meeting with M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk State Academy Opera & Ballet Theater’s Board of Trustees on December 18, 2019, with ChelPipe Group’s shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov on the board among other members. According to ChelPipe Group’s press service, the meeting was dedicated to the board’s performance throughout the year 2018 and to the plans for the year 2019. This year, the board intends to get the main stage and the ballet hall repaired and the theater’s infrastructure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 22, 2019. More than 1,500 Sverdlovsk Region private residents and sole traders went through personal bankruptcy/asset disposal procedures last year, which exceeded the figures for the year 2017 (965 people/sole traders) by 61.3%, United Credit Bureau’s and FedResurs’s joint research findings indicate. It is reported that only 5.6% of potential bankrupts actually went through the procedure in 2018 (overall number: 27,680 private individuals and sole traders, up by 3,320 people on a year earlier). Based on this criterion, Sverdlovsk Region comes No.4 after Moscow,

UrBC, Moscow, January 22, 2019. The average interest rate on a mortgage on an existing home rose to 10.31% on average in December 2018 (compared with 10.21% in November 2018), Rusipoteka’s research findings indicate. The average interest on a mortgage on a new home is now up to 10.18% a year; the average offer on other banks’ loans’ refinancing rate is now 10.23%. ‘Based on our analysis of interest rate dynamics in December, 9% a year appears to be the best offer one can find advertised on the banks’ websites. These appealing-looking ‘best rates’ usually only apply to limited borrower

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 22, 2019. An investigation of job opening ads placed by Sverdlovsk Region’s employers revealed numerous violations of current labor laws. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities, companies routinely discriminate against their potential employees by setting specific age, gender, appearance, bad habits, and pregnancy criteria, as well as demanding that a job candidate should own a car or live in the same part of town where the company is based. For one, Yekaterinburg-based OOO LotEka advertised a vacancy in Sales, insisting that a job-seeker