According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nonresident legal entities’ deposits in Uralfinprombank valid for 91 to 180 days went down 100% (from 9.833 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2007.

The Russian Federation Subsoil Resources Agency issued an order regarding early license termination of Uralneft entitling the former to Krasnoufimskiy land patch beginning from October 1, 2007, the Agency’s Licensing Department said to UrBC. In the little time they have, the company has to have the area re-vegetated and wells shut down. The license was actually cancelled because Uralneft actually dealt in illegal oil production, reaching an output of 6,000 tons a year, whereas its license only stated that the company was allowed to engage in some experimental-industrial activity as far as

In January-April 2007, Nizhniy Tagil customs’ Currency Control Department initiated 218 inspections aimed at checking how effectively 23 local exporters complied with the currency regulations. These inspections resulted in 52 administrative lawsuits, with damage claims amounting to $531,070. All the case-related papers have already been placed with the regional division of Rosfinnadzor (the state financial watchdog) 29 cases have to do with failing to meet the requirement that exporters have their money (foreing currency obtained through export of goods) transferred in certain banks over a

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of natural persons’ deposits and investments in UralTransBank placed for 31 to 90 days went down 83% (from 3.608 million RUR to 611,000 RUR) in January-April 2007.

26 posts at Russian-Kazakh frontier will be set up in Chelyabinsk Region; the decision was announced by the head of Federal Security Service Frontier Administration in Chelyabinsk Region Oleg Lutskikh at the anti-terrorist committee meeting chaired by Governor Petr Sumin. The attendants also discussed the need for efficient railway check points (the ones available at the moment leave a lot to be desired). The Governor suggested that the committee should write a proposal to this effect to Head of Russian Federation Government Mikhail Fradkov. Besides, matters of anti-terrorist protection at

URSA Bank set up its second mortgage lending center in Novosibirsk at 27 Vatutin St. (The first office is located at 179/4 D. Kovalchuk St.) ‘URSA Bank has for a long time been doing business with realtors in terms of mortgages; actually, this is how the idea of creating a workplace for a realtor in our offices emerged. As far as the new center is concerned, our customers can consult a representative of Pallas Athena agency,’ URSA Bank’s Mortgage Promotion Director in Novosibirsk Anna Bardysheva says. ‘A customer coming to our office would be able to get advice on the best mortgages as well

This year’s housing market development can be defined as stagnating in comparison with last year; the number of actual transactions has gone down dramatically against the second half of 2006, experts of Ural Chamber of Real Estate say. This drop in the buying activity can be explained by a dramatic increase in housing prices, since such increases have led to decreasing demand before. At the same time, the amount of transactions completed in the first quarter of 2007 is not any smaller than in the first quarter of 2006; moreover, this figure outstrips the data for 2002-2005. This means current

‘The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s buying a 25% share holding of SKB-Bank’s authorized capital is going to make this Yekaterinburg-based bank much more respectable. It will also ensure cheap money and well-reputed co-directors as well as a great developmental impulse,’ Vitaliy Kalugin, Assets Management Director of Unicom Partner Investment Company, said to UrBC. SKB-Bank reports it signed the share-selling agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on May 24, 2007. The share holding is constituted by the bank’s additional share issue and comes to

‘These will mainly be some Moscow-based companies that will actually suffer the greatest losses because of the possible bans for Russian airplanes to fly to Tunis. Ural travelers are not going to be seriously affected as Yekaterinburg dwellers don’t really go to Tunis that much,’ Bosfor Travel Agency’s Commercial Director Alexei Satarov said to UrBC. ‘We are hoping, though, that our authorities actually manage to settle the issue,’ he added. Last weekend, Tunisian authorities cancelled their permissions to enter the country given to all Russian carriers; this lasted a few hours; the flights

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to state-owned profit-making organizations for 1 to 3 years went down 29% (from 4.999 million RUR to 3.541 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

According to Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Agriculture and Food, regional farmers are planning to be done with the spring crops by June 4, 2007. Nice weather that’s been around for the last few days made it possible for them to catch up with the usual spring schedule (the sowing campaign was originally supposed to have been finished by May 28, 2007 yet this was not to be since the weather was rather inclement). So far, farmers have managed to sow 220,000 hectares of land, which comes to 42% of the target figures.

A group of Ural Airlines’ employees are going to take part in the 1st International Transport Forum and Russian Transport 2007 exhibition. Both events have been organized and coordinated by the Ministry of Transport and are to be held in Sochi on May 31-June 3, 2007. The forum is expected to become an annual event and one of the most impressive arenas for public presentation of one’s successes and prospects. According to Ural Airlines’ press officer, round about 600 people have applied so far, including a delegation from Italy’s Ministry of Transport, Transport Ministers of Saudi Arabia,

German Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg will be accepting visa applications from dwellers of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Chelyabinsk Regions and from people living in Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Regions beginning from June 1, 2007. People living in Perm and Orenburg Regions or Bashkortostan will have to keep applying for their visas in Moscow.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nongovernmental financial institutions’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 30 days went down 50% (from 16 million RUR to 8 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

The number of mortgages offered by Russian banks altogether in the first quarter of the year exceeded the figures for the first quarter of 2006 by 4% and reached 82.3 billion RUR. This comes to 32.9% of the target figures for 2007 (250 billion RUR). The average interest rate came to 14% for ruble loans and to 11% for foreign currency loans. The Central Bank of Russia reports Central Federal District’s share of mortgages amounted to 23.4 billion RUR, that of Siberian Federal District to 15.5 billion RUR, that of Volga Federal District to 15.1 billion RUR, that of Ural Federal District to 11.3

SKB-Bank started offering mortgages to members of building societies who would like to have a dwelling built for them. There are several loan schemes available to customers, including the one without the obligatory collateral for the construction period. ‘We’ve got a lot of experience in terms of working with the local builders; all the details and technicalities have already been made clear, so, by launching this new offer, we are giving our building societies a chance to benefit from the federal mortgage program and are expanding our own market as well,’ SKB-Bank’s Mortgage Lending Director

‘May 25, 2007 was the last day for the regional employers to apply for foreign workers they will need next year; we haven’t been able to process all the figures yet, but what I do know is that there had already been applications for 34,500 people by May 18, 2007,’ director of Sverdlovsk Region Placement Service Vyacheslav Krivel said to UrBC. ‘We’ve cancelled all the quotas for the first time this year; last year, however, 43,000 workers were applied for,’ he said. After the applications have been processed, data on the number of workers will be transferred to an interdepartmental committee

According to Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Economics and Labor, the official unemployment level in the region reached 1.3% on May 1, 2007, with 31,445 people’s files in job centers’ databases. At the same time, regional companies and organizations asked for 41,922 employees.

Agropromcredit Bank’s top executives announced at a recent press conference that the name of their company was actually misleading as it no longer hinted at the bank’s core activities. ‘People often ask what we have to do with the country’s agriculture; the thing is, there used to be some agricultural entities among our founders, but now it’s just a name that does not mean anything in terms of our business directions,’ the bank’s BOD member Yuri Zverev said. Chairman Igor Sogin added that they were about to start a re-branding campaign.

‘The fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development acquired some shares of SKB-Bank is a very good thing for the latter. Firstly, the bank is now able to successfully build on its capital; moreover, doing business with a large international financial institution is a matter of status and prestige which is bound to boost the bank’s capitalization,’ Investments Director of Management Company Alexander Metsger said to UrBC. ‘Seconldy, SKB-Bank is providing additional resources for itself and its customers, which makes it more competitive. Thirdly, the bank is definitely going to