According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders for 31 to 90 days dropped by 85.78% (from 3.48 million RUR to 495,000 RUR) in January-December 2007.

According to the rating of unit investment trusts as of January 23, 2008, the share price of BCS Oil and Petroleum Chemistry Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has dropped by 13.04% since the beginning of the year.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year despite overdraft plummeted by 40.37% (from 51.991 million RUR to 31 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

Aviaprad might close down as soon as February 1, 2008 due to financial breakdown, UrBC’s sources report. Rumor has it the carrier owes some 1 billion RUR to a number of creditors, including Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg. According to KrasAir, Aviaprad was thinking of selling the company as early as at the end of 2007. ‘Aviaprad’s shareholders suggested that we buy the business, so KrasAir and Aivaprad are now negotiating for the acquisition of the shareholding. We haven’t come up with all the details of the agreement yet, however,’ the spokesperson for KrasAir said to UrBC on December 7,

URSA Bank made 209.4 million RUR worth of first coupon payments on its seventh-issue bonds on January 24, 2008. The coupon yield was determined by the 8.4% annual interest rate, so each bond brought its owner 41.88 RUR. The bank went through with this 5-billion RUR bond issue (40700323 В) on July 26, 2007, and the bonds are to be in circulation for five years. The issue was coordinated by Renaissance Capital and Deutsche Bank. Apart from that, URSA Bank paid 28.605 million RUR to cover the fourth coupon yield on its sixth-issue bonds. The coupon yield was determined by the 7.65% annual

The Bank of Russia registered SKB-Bank’s second and third bond issues; each issue is worth 2 billion RUR and consists of 2 million bonds with face value of 1,000 RUR each. Each bond is to be in circulation for 1,099 days (3 years). Both bond issues will be available from MICEX stock exchange, and both of them are provided with six coupons each. SKB-Bank went through with its first bond issue on June 21, 2007. These bonds are to be in circulation for three years; the first coupon interest rate was determined at 9.75% a year.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 75.98% (from 27.811 million RUR to 6.681 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

'We are still finding it hard to introduce the ‘green light’ in Koltsovo airport, as we arrest some customs rules violators in the green light area that we’ve got now virtually on a daily basis,’ Head of Ural Customs Administration Vladimir Sorokin announced at a press conference. According to Mr. Sorokin, a group of Chinese citizens who were trying to smuggle loads of foreign currency across the Russian state border got arrested just a few days earlier.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development came up with more fixed-term deposit offers; for instance, their new Successful deposit is now available to all the individual customers who are willing to deposit at least 5,000 RUR/$200/200 for 186 days. The interest rate grows each month, so one would enjoy the interest rate of 15% a year in the sixth month. The beauty of this deposit scheme lies in that the interest is paid every thirty-one days and the customer is free to withdraw this sum at any given moment. If you don’t withdraw your interest, it is capitalized automatically. In case

According to the rating of unit investment trusts as of January 23, 2008, the share price of Troika Dialog Federalniy (Troika Dialog Management Company) dropped by 14.59% between January 1, 2008 and January 23, 2008.

Sberbank’s unique BLITZ money order service is becoming more and more popular. Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch, for example, handled 10 billion RUR worth of BLITZ money orders (216,500 money orders altogether) in 2007. At the same time, the number of bank outlets in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Kurgan Regions as well as in Bashkortostan that offer BLITZ money order services increased by 1.5 times and reached 643 terminals last year. In October 2007, BLITZ went international, so now transactions are possible for citizens of Kazakhstan as well as Russia. BLITZ is Sberbank of Russia’s express

An Interdepartmental Railway Haulage Improvement Committee meeting took place in Yekaterinburg. The meeting was chaired by acting head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Valery Fomin. Ironically, Mr. Fomin was unable to answer the reporters’ query as to what he thought of the previous head and management’s bribe-taking practices and whether he managed to actually eliminate these practices.

'We have to check the consumer loan agreements that our customers complain about. Last year, we detected a number of mistakes and violations in some banks’ contracts, so all these banks’ cases are now being considered by the region’s Court of Arbitration,’ Consumer Rights Protection Director of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) Natalya Afanasieva said to UrBC. The number of complaints placed by the banks’ borrowers rose by ten times last year compared to the year 2006. Head of Rospotrebnadzor Gennady Onischenko reports 1,062 claims were

'Our law-enforcement agencies intend to inspect all the car centers and show rooms in Yekaterinburg, including those that deal in premium class cars. Autoland car center is going to be no exception,’ reports Valeriy Gorelikh, the press officer of Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs. Yekaterinburg car centers (including those that sell foreign automobiles) are currently undergoing inspections related to tax evasion, undeclared wages, and violations of customs regulations as well as to the numerous complaints made by customers who are unhappy with the sales procedures.

BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov and Director of Belgorod-based Centrogiproruda Viktor Ten signed a contract regarding the designing of Prioskolskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise on January 24, 2008. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works will be developing Prioskolskiy iron ore deposit with its 45.2 million tons of valuable ore and more than 2 billion tons of unoxidized carbonate-facies iron formation. MMK’s new subsidiary was registered in Stariy Oskol, Belgorod Region, on January 11, 2008. Sergey Shergin was appointed the subsidiary’s director.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to natural persons for 31 to 90 days went down by 31.96% (from 1.796 million RUR to 1.222 million RUR) in January-December 2007.

According to the rating of unit investment trusts as of January 22, 2008, the profitability of Zvezdniy Bulvar (Bank of Moscow Management Company) has dropped by 16.55% since the beginning of the year.

According to the rating of unit investment trusts as of January 22, 2008, the profitability of LUKoil Fund First (Uralsib Management Company) has gone down by 15.59% since the beginning of the year.

'It’s actually true that the Liner Hotel no longer belongs to Koltsovo airport. On January 1, 2008, the hotel became an independent legal entity. The decision was taken by the airport’s management in 2007,’ the new company’s Deputy GD Viktor Zhukov said to UrBC. At the same time, Koltsovo airport’s General Director Kirill Shubin announced on January 22, 2008 that a brand new business/hotel facility would have been completed by the spring of 2009.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development managed to triple the volume of its securities market transactions last year compared to the year 2006. The figure thus reached 521.319 billion RUR. For one, the bank’s trading activity at Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange and RTS (FORTS) rose by 61% and 6.5 times, respectively, and resulted in 194.992 billion RUR and 112.841 billion RUR worth of trading deals, respectively. The volume of the bank’s securities transactions at MICEX amounted to 213.288 billion RUR in 2007, which is nine times better than the year before. At the same time, the