OREANDA-NEWS.  January 20, 2014. With the recent capital injection of 28.63 million EUR and a new management team, NORVIK BANKA plans to become one of the leading universal banks in Latvia within the next five years by improving operational efficiency, exploring new market segments, focusing on lower risk operations and improving the online banking experience.

NORVIK BANKA is looking to re-focus the bank’s balance sheet to more profitable assets and steadily grow its customer base through product and service quality. To facilitate the attraction of younger clientele, NORVIK BANKA is looking into mobile banking technology already in mass use across the USA, Europe and Asia, as well as expanding its marketing activities.

However, the bank will still maintain its significant physical presence with 80 customer service points in Latvia, and is looking to expand on this by opening 1-2 new locations on an annual basis where economically viable.

Oliver Bramwell, CEO of NORVIK BANKA: “What we see in NORVIK BANKA today is a great core business driven by commission and fees income, with some poor previous credit risk management. The bank is planning to continue operating with the existing business model whilst at the same time improving the bank?s internal operations. The key focus is stable and rational growth through low-risk operations in both private and corporate customer segments, for instance, by growing the medium term deposit base, providing salary-linked overdrafts as well as loans for mature companies with high-quality collateral. This implies that our customers in the future will not only have access to all the current services, but also new, up-to-date products and e-finance services, which will also be available from mobile platforms for added convenience."

NORVIK BANKA is looking to become one of the leading Latvian universal banks and remain a top-10 bank in Latvia with balanced growth in total assets, while preserving its unique business model to effectively compete with both retail, mass-market banks and private client banks. The areas where NORVIK BANKA aims to excel are customer service and innovation.

As reported earlier, on December 19, 2013, the owner and leading partner of London based investment fund G2 Capital Partners Grigory Guselnikov acquired 50%+1 share of JSC NORVIK BANK and became the majority shareholder and strategic investor in the bank, having invested 28.63 million EUR (20 million LVL) in the bank’s shareholder capital. As of the shareholder meeting on the same date Oliver Bramwell, CFA, was appointed the new CEO of the bank.

For the last one and a half years Mr. Guselnikov and his team of investment specialists have been reviewing banking sectors across Europe, looking for well-priced investment opportunities in commercial banks. Grigory Guselnikov, leading partner of G2 Capital Partners: “A key area of our focus was the Baltics given the positive economic signals coming out of the region prior to any upturn in Europe. The price of the investment, structure of the shareholding, and expected long-term income stream of NORVIK BANKA complied with all our requirements for a quality investment. Furthermore, considering that Latvia has just now joined the Eurozone, the local banking industry has undergone relevant systemic due diligence”. Mr. Guselnikov is certain that the current banking infrastructure in Latvia is likely to remain much more resilient through any further downturns, and he believes that the time is now right to make the investment in NORVIK BANKA.