Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank is not planning on acquiring Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank, the company’s Deputy PR Director Vitaliy Saprykin was reported as saying.

However, Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank has earlier been rumored to consider buying an impressive shareholding in Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank.

The two banks agreed in October 2008 that they would cooperate in the field of lending to entities and individuals through 2012. Their collaborative agenda included joint loans to private and business customers based in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region as well as other parts of Russia; besides, they intended to offer syndicated loans to municipal and manufacturing enterprises. Then, Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank was supposed to set up a network of its ATMs (including cash-in ones) in Sverdlovsk Region that would be operated and maintained by Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank’s personnel.