Monday, November 21 2011 20:26
Central Bank of Armenia registers representation of Rietumu Banka
ArmInfo. The Central Bank of Armenia has registered a representation of Rietumu Banka, one of the biggest banks of Latvia.
The press service of the Cb reports that in 2010 Rietumu Banka ensured over 1/3 of the profit of Latvia's banking system. The net profit of the bank totalled 4.6mln EUR, the profit of the whole Rietumu group - 6.8mln lat (9.7mln EUR). Jan 1 2011 the assets of Rietumu Banka totalled 1.6bln EUR, the loans - 763mln EUR, the deposits - 1.4bln EUR, the capital and the reserves - 196mln EUR.
Rietumu Banka was set up in 1992 and provides banking, consulting and brokerage services. The bank holds a controlling stake in Westleasing, a group leasing equipment and commercial motor vehicles in Russia, Belarus and UKraine.
Rietumu Banka has seven representations in Europe and the ciS.
Experts believe that Latvia has very favorable conditions for banking and regard it as the second Switzerland
Until now there has been only one company with Latvian capital in Armenia - Norvik universal credit company, a subsidiary of Norvik Bank Latvian-Icelandic company. Following the crisis Norvik changed its plans to carry out banking activities in Armenia and is now focused on development business.