URSA Synd. Loan

completed

URSA Bank (URSA Bank or the Bank) was formed in December 2006 as a result of the merger of two regional banks: Sibacadembank, headquartered in Novosibirsk, and Uralvneshtorgbank, headquartered in Yekaterinburg. Now it is one of the largest regional banks in Russia. Its total assets as of June 30, 2007 were $5.5 billion and total equity $1 billion. The Bank is a universal bank, offering a wide range of services to its retail and corporate clients. Although its original strategy was to focus on SMEs, since 2004 the Bank has actively developed retail lending and more recently it also expanded residential mortgage lending. The Bank is rated by international rating agencies, with Fitch rating of B (Positive) and Moody’s rating of Baa3 (Stable). Standard & Poor’s put the Bank on the 4th place in its ranking of the most transparent banks in Russia in 2007 (among 30 largest banks included by S&P in its Transparency and Disclosure Survey of Russian Banks 2007).