‘The need for the large federal banks to re-brand is often connected with them becoming retail-oriented. Businesses do pay attention to things like brands and logos, but only to a certain extent,’ the Head of Bank Ratings Department of Expert Rating Agency Pavel Samiev commented on the recent consolidation and re-branding trends in today’s banking. ‘A private client, however, wants the brand to be simple and clear; this is a must if you want to attract the mass audience,’ Mr Samiev observed. ‘Re-branding is good for a bank’s development, with most research findings showing that it stimulates

According to the Analytical Department of Ural Chamber of Real Estate, the existing office sales prices might soar by another 50% before the end of 2006. The expert from the Department say that the existing office sales market has experienced the highest-ever growth of price per square meter this year (the figure went up 52% over ten months). It is more stable, however, than the existing home sales market, where the prices went up almost 100%.

The regional House of Representatives adopted the budget of Sverdlovsk Region for 2007. According to the Minister of Finances Maria Serova, the profits amounted to almost 100bn RUR. Sverdlovsk Region budget is to get 63bn RUR in the form of the region’s own profits and 78bn RUR from the federal sources, with consolidated budget coming to 99bn RUR. 46% will be used to cover the social welfare expenditures, 12% will be invested in the region’s economy, and 29% will be used for inter-budgetary transfers.

‘Magnesite Industrial Complex is currently implementing a strategic program approved of by the shareholders and valid until 2010. This means we have a lot of things to do in terms of production management, introducing the newest equipment and the most advanced technologies,’ the company’s General Director Igor Anikievitch said in the course of a meeting of local investors with acting Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Andrei Kosilov; the meeting was conducted within the framework of VI Ural Investment Forum. ‘The total amount of investments for 2006-2010 is expected to reach the figure of 4.7bn

‘If ROSNO fails to comply with our requirements, this insurer is going to be sanctioned,’ Olga Tsarkova, Assistant to the Head of the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency, said to UrBC representative. The disagreement between ROSNO and UralTransBank has still not been settled; both companies claim that the other party does not meet its agreement liabilities. This quarrel has already become known to the public as the Association of Regional Russian Banks and the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency got involved in the conflict; the latter considered the claim of UralTransBank and gave some

The top executives of Russia’s leading retail chains dealing in home appliances and consumer electronics came up with a statement that depicts the way Panasonic does business in Russia as unscrupulous. They said they were going to stop selling goods produced by the company. The writing of this statement was caused by ‘the dishonest and sometimes illegal practices employed by Panasonic in Russia’; it was signed by Chairman of EuroSet Evgeniy Chichvarkin, President of Svyaznoy Maxim Nogotkov, President of Eldorado Igor Yakovlev, Vice President of M.Video Alexander Zaionts, President of

Olips retired 40.6m RUR worth of bills and partly covered its second bill tranche with the total face value of 88.7m RUR. The first tranche worth 62.7m RUR was paid at the end of September. The company still has 71m RUR worth of second- and third-tranche bills in circulation. It broke into the market in order to project the image of an open and transparent company as well as to build a balanced borrowing structure and create a publicly known credit record to facilitate the forthcoming corporate bonds market entry.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by UralTransBank to sole traders despite an overdraft account went down by 44.7% (from 33.994m RUR to 18.772m RUR) in January-November 2006.

‘If the temperature in the schools and kindergartens of Polevskoy drops below 16 degrees centigrade above zero, they will have to be closed. The temperature in the buildings meant for children must comply with the norms. Given that there are 18 schools and 21 kindergartens in the town at the moment, almost 10,000 children will not be able to attend classes or go to day care,’ says Olga Schwartzman, Deputy Head of Education Board of Polevskoy. In the meantime, the town is actually likely to have no heating this winter.

‘Sales of AutoVAZ-produced cars went down by 30% compared with last year,’ reports the press officer for the Sales Department of Ural Cars motor show. AutoVAZ dealers currently have over 70,000 cars waiting to be sold, which is twice the number of the average monthly figure. ‘It really is true that there are too many AutoVAZ-produced cars at the moment, and the demand for them is going down, as it has been throughout the whole year,’ says the press officer. Ural Cars believe the main reason for the decline in demand for Russian cars is the relative cheapness of the foreign ones.

SibAcademBank won the National Banking Prize as the Most Dynamically Developing Bank. The prize was instituted by the Association of Russian Banks and the National Banking Journal. The National Banking Prize is the first all-Russian award in the field of banking; it was awarded for the second time this year, with the ceremony taking place in the Russian Federation President Administration Reception Palace on November 30, 2006. The news was reported by the spokesperson for Uralvneshtorgbank.

‘The amount of money an organization can give to a bank solely depends on how much it believes in the bank’s strategy and potential. In case of Uralvneshtorgbank, this confidence is obviously very strong,’ the Assets Management Director of Unicom Partner Investment and Finance Company Vitaliy Kalugin said to UrBC representative relating to two subordinate loans recently obtained by Uralvneshtorgbank. The bank received $20m from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with credit payments to be made for the next seven or up to nine years, and $10m from the International Finance

‘Building companies are not among the enterprises that use the voluntary medical insurance service widely. Covering your workers’ medical insurance is a normal practice in all large companies, yet the local builders, whose employees actually work in the environment that is detrimental enough and often have health problems as a result, almost never insure their workers. Covering the insurance of the management is the most they can do,’ Boris Velegzheninov, Director of Belaya Bashnya Zdorovyie, an insurance company, said to UrBC representative. ‘Most workers employed by the building companies

Uraltrac Ltd. produced 647,400,000 RUR worth of goods in November 2006, which comes to 100% of the target figures. The plant also produced 214 engineer vehicles worth 388,400,000 RUR, including 56 tractors, 15 pipelayers, and 142 ripper-dozer units (97.6% of the target figure). In November 2006, the plant shipped 801,760,000 RUR worth of goods (which falls short of the target sales record by 3.3%) and sold 220 engineer vehicles worth 497,381,000 RUR, including 208 tractors and T-10-based units and 7 ripper-dozers, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Chelindbank announced the beginning of its special offer period on December 1, 2006. This offer is referred to as New Year’s Premiere; it will be valid until February 28, 2007. The bank’s clients may win a gift certificate for Nissan Primera and 77 smaller prizes such as mobile phones, audio gadgets and photo cameras. According to the bank’s spokesperson, the eligibility for participation in the lottery depends on whether a client has put at least 100,000 RUR, $3,000, or ?3,000 in a deposit opened between December 1, 2006 and February 28, 2007 for a term of at least 555 days. The drawing will

The Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy signed the Yekaterinburg Hotels Project today, reports the press officer for the city council. This project provides for the construction of 68 accommodation facilities, 50% of which are going to be hotels with varying comfort ratings, as well as for renovation of the existing hotels, upgrading its old services and offering some new ones within 2006-2015. This program is expected to create approximately 13,000 jobs. There are currently 38 hotels and 22 tourist-hosting facilities without a hotel status operating in Yekaterinburg altogether.

‘Some administrative quarrels between two parties cooperating under an agreement will occur every once in while, yet this case is quite unique in that these parties got the Association of Regional Russian Banks and the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency involved in their conflict for no apparent reason. These authorities do not facilitate the conflict resolution and only breed extra rumors; the only thing they can do is provide moral justification for one of the parties involved but no tangible support. Moreover, they also create the unnecessary hype around the issue,’ the Director of the

‘We deal with cases connected with the unscrupulous actions of insurance companies quite often: at least a dozen claims are laid against them every year. Our guild, for instance, has had to tackle cases involving such insurers as Gamma, Rosgosstrakh, and Yugoria,’ Ludmila Mekhontseva of the regional Lawyers’ Guild said to UrBC representative. ‘Most claims have to do with the obligatory car insurance and hull insurance following some car accidents when the insurance companies allegedly do the following: firstly, they reduce the repair expenses figures and the cost of replacing the car parts;

A public meeting of the Association of Regional Russian Banks Coordination Committee consisting of the Association executives from the federal districts and Russian Federation subjects was held in Yekaterinburg today. The meeting was devoted to the methods and ways of banking activities consolidation and to the recent trends and potential of this field of banking business. The meeting was attended by Anatoliy Aksakov, the President of the Association, Alexander Stroganov (Vice President), Alexander Khandruev (First Vice President), Deputy Chairman of Ural Bankers’ Union Evgeniy Bolotin, and

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel and the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin met to discuss the regional building and housing industry development and Academic construction project. This is an interesting project meant for providing homes to 350,000 people. According to the Governor, this district will represent the new concept of a comfortable life, as the project covers the infrastructure development and construction of trade centers and entertainment facilities. This new district is to appear in the south-west of Yekaterinburg and is expected to occupy 2,500 hectares of