Sverdlovsk Region’s total payment turnover (the sum of cash flow and non-cash operations) went up by 40.2% in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the first quarter of 2007. The region’s non-cash payments turnover (the sum of turnovers related to debiting and crediting customers’ accounts in the Bank of Russia and other banks, including the intra-bank settlement systems in rubles and foreign currency, and the bank of Russia’s subdivisions’ payment transactions) went up by 34.2%, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Bank of Russia reports.

The increase in the region’s payment turnover can be explained by the banks’ customers’ greater entrepreneurial activity: all of Sverdlovsk Region’s enterprises and organizations’ turnover went up by 32.8% in current prices in January-February 2008, while the organizations’ profit and loss ratio went up by 9.6% over the same period of time.