The regional authorities might ban the construction of an apartment block at 57 Radischev St. (Yekaterinburg) currently supervised by Aston Building Company. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the state board of experts looked into the project and was planning to turn it down on February 20, 2008, since the experts found a number of problems in this project. In the meantime, the local council is not allowed to let any builder start working unless the experts approve of their project. The building, however, is half-finished already, even though the people from the

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.64% between February 19, 2008 and February 20, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,090,443.18 RUR on February 19, 2008 to 3,040,669.25 RUR on February 20, 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 78.69% (from 33.093 million RUR to 7.05million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts, the share price of CIT Fortis Russian Oil (CIT Fortis Investment Management Company) has gone down by 12.38% since the beginning of the year.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations despite overdraft went down by 35.45% (from 100.165 million RUR to 64.653 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

'People tended to open more ruble deposits rather than the foreign currency ones in the last quarter of the year, so the volume of ruble deposits in banks located in Ural Federal District rose by 10.2% compared to an 8.3% increase in the volume of foreign currency deposits in October-December 2007,’ the Deposit Insurance Agency’s report says. Kurgan Region had the smallest share of foreign currency deposits in its banks (it only came to 1% of the total deposit volume on January 1, 2008), while Tyumen Region had the greatest share which amounted to 10.4% of the total deposit volume.

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg resumed working after its runway and parking areas had been properly cleaned. ‘It took fourteen vehicles and a team of workers to remove all the snow that was there,’ the airport’s PR expert Olga Ladeischikova said to UrBC. The airport remained closed for the whole morning of February 21, 2008 due to a continuous heavy snowfall.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 22.22% (from 1.8 million RUR to 1.4 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders despite overdraft dropped by 100% (from 1.397 million RUR to zero) in December 2007-January 2008.

The share price of Alemar Index MICEX (the open unit investment trust run by Alemar Management Company) went down by 10.43% between January 1, 2008 and February 15, 2008. These data are available from Alemar Management Company’s official website.

Settlement services and cash transactions are the most popular baking service with the Russian businesses at the moment, a recent marketing research on the banking and insurance services to businesses shows. Loans were the second most popular service, as over 45% of respondents admitted they borrowed money from banks at some point or other. Bank cards and salary accounts were rated as the third most popular service, with 43% of those surveyed using it, followed by international payments (used by 21.2% of respondents) and bank deposits (used by 19.5% of the surveyed companies’ top managers).

Ural Treasures Bank is now offering its customers a new service known as Internet Bank. The service is available for both businesses and private individuals, who can now enjoy a full range of banking services and easy account management opportunities online without even setting foot inside the bank office. To use the service, any modern computer with an Internet connection supporting Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, or FireFox will do. E-banking is compatible with Windows, Linux, and other operating systems and ensures a guaranteed safety level through Crypto C system

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 18, 2008, Birzhevaya Ploschad - Index MICEX (the Bank of Moscow Management Company) has gone down by 11.57% since the beginning of the year.

The banks located in Ural Federal District managed to raise the volume of investments by private individuals by 38.5% last year, including a 10% increase in October-December 2007, the Deposit Insurance Agency says. Sverdlovsk Region-based banks did particularly well, as their natural person deposit portfolio went up by 45%, which is better than the results reached by the banks based in Tyumen Region (34.8%), Chelyabinsk Region (33.1%), or Kurgan Region (24.1%). Only the banks of Sverdlovsk and Tyumen Regions experienced some natural person deposit portfolio growth (by 12.6% and 12.9%

'The number of consumer loan cooperatives like RichBrokerCreditService Active, Active Invest, and Grand Capital has been increasing in Sverdlovsk Region lately,‘ Deputy GD and Director of Accord Invest’s Ural branch Konstantin Selyanin said to UrBC. In the meantime, the representatives of Accord Invest’s Ural branch have placed over fifteen complaints with the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s regional division since February 1, 2008. The complaints are all related to these cooperatives’ activity. 'Five more cooperatives were introduced in the region within the last two or three

The share price of Uralskiy Krai (the unit investment trust run by Investstroy Management Company) went down by 18.94% (from 173,601.81 RUR to 145,958.12 RUR) between December 29, 2007 and January 31, 2008. These data are available from Investstroy’s official website.

'Uralsvyazinform’s apparent inability to get a loan can largely be explained by extraneous factors: after all, the liquidity crisis unfolds on a global scale, so Russian banks that used to get cheap resources abroad easily now have a very hard time getting them,’ Unicom Partner Investment Company’s Asset Management Director Sergei Kaliberda said to UrBC. In the meantime, the mobile operator started accepting applications from banks willing to offer them a loan on February 20, 2008. The company offered the potential creditors four 2.65-billion-ruble lots. The company has already had a

First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister of Economics and Labor Mikhail Maximov was elected the new Chairman of Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank’s Board of Directors. He actually succeeded Ms Galina Kovaleva, who had been appointed by the region’s government and had up to the summer of 2007 been First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.21% (from 217.128 million RUR to 173.242 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 1.4% between February 14, 2008 and February 15, 2008. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,093,749.87 RUR on February 14, 2008 to 3,050,377.87 RUR on February 15, 2008.