'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. Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions had 6.7% and 4.4% shares of foreign currency deposits respectively.