OREANDA-NEWS. November 30, 2011. “Bank Citadele and Parex bank are two independent financial institutions, and the possible change in the status of Parex bank and giving up the licence of a credit institution in no way affects the operations of Citadele Bank. Citadele continues growth by offering banking services and products for clients,” comments the Chairman of the Board of Citadele Bank Juris Jakobsons, reported the press-centre of Citadele.

Immediately after restructuring the Parex bank in 2010 and upon establishing Citadele Bank, to which the good assets of the former Parex bank were brought over, Citadele took over also the client servicing function. Meanwhile, since the restructuring, Parex has not been dealing with client servicing.

Parex bank already since last August has not been implementing the classical banking functions, namely, it does not deal with crediting and does not accept client deposits. Since August of last year, the operations of Parex bank are mainly related to asset management and therefore in accordance with the tasks of the restructuring plan, the status of a bank does not need to be maintained in order to achieve objectives of the restructuring plan.

Citadele Bank continues its growth and is operating with profits. Citadele continues developing client servicing and offering new services and products. AS “Citadele banka” is a full service financial institution, which offers banking, financial and capital management services in the domestic market and in 10 other countries. It is the only collaboration partner of American Express® in Latvia and Lithuania having the rights to issue American Express credit cards. The objective of the bank is to become the most valuable financial group in the Baltic States.

AS “Citadele banka” has branch offices in Latvia, Estonia, Germany, and Sweden, as well as banks in Lithuania and Switzerland. Altogether it owns 19 subsidiaries operating in various financial market sectors. The bank is represented also in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

Bank Citadele was established on 30 June 2010. It commenced independent operations on 1 August 2010 after successfully completing the EC-approved restructuring of AS “Parex banka”, during which the good assets of the then “Parex banka” were carried over to the newly established bank Citadele.

75 % less one share of the bank Citadele is owned by the State of Latvia in the person of “Privatizacijas agentura”, whereas the owner of 25 % plus one share is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In May 2011, the state adopted a decision on selling the shares it owns, and a process has been initiated to attract a stable long-term investor to the bank.

According to the financial data for the first half of 2011, Citadele is the third largest bank in Latvia in terms of attracted deposits (9.7% market share), the fifth largest by the total amount of loans issued (5.2% market share) and the sixth largest bank according to the amount of assets (6.5% market share).

According to the data of 30 June 2011, Citadele’s total assets amount is 1.25 billion Lats (Group –1.42 billion Lats). The Bank’s loan portfolio is 641 million Lats (Group – 736 million Lats) and the amount of capital and reserves is 84 million Lats (Group - 83 million Lats). The total amount of deposits with Citadele Bank at the end of the first half a year of 2011 reached 1.01 billion Lats (Group – 1.18 billion Lats).

According to the data of 30 June 2011, the bank’s capital asset ratio is reported to be 13.0% (Group – 10.7%) and its liquidity ratio is a healthy 62%.

On 7 September 2010, the international rating agency Moody's Investors Service awarded the bank with a long-term rating of Ba3 (stable).

The bank’s group provides a broad range of financial services. The main types of services include dealing with disbursement accounts, payment cards, deposit products for individuals and undertakings, consumer loans and mortgages, corporate financing, guarantees and letters of credit, leasing, factoring, distribution of American Express credit cards in Latvia and Lithuania, services of private banking and Concierge service, life insurance, asset management, incl. management of the 2nd and 3rd level retirement savings and 3rd level locked-in retirement funds for undertakings.