OREANDA-NEWS. October 07, 2011. Citadele Bank repaid 48.7 million Euros (34.2 million Lats) to the Ministry of Finance. 46.6 million Euros, or 32.8 million Lats, of the repaid amount is principal of the funding that the State had invested as term deposits, and 2.1 million Euros, that is 1.5 million Lats, is the interest for the third quarter. This is the third instalment paid back by Citadele during the course of the last year, reported the press-centre of Citadele Bank.

“We are grateful to our clients who work with Citadele, entrust their funds with the Bank and implement their short-term and long-term plans, with the Bank's support. We are also thankful to the Bank's personnel which works professionally and selflessly in order to ensure client’s in an ever increasing quality and the opportunity to use innovative products and services adapted to the present needs of the market. Citadele has become an example of a successful bank restructuring process as a result of our joint work, and it continues developing in a stable manner in line with its restructuring plan. Repaying the State its invested funds was one of our main tasks, and it continues to be our top priority. I am sure that the State will completely recover the tax payer’s money it invested in Citadele,” says Juris Jakobsons, Chairman of Citadele’s Board of Directors.

Since August 2010 Citadele Bank has repaid to the State 110.5 million Euros, that is 77.6 million Lats, of the total term deposit invested by the government of Latvia.

During the period from August 2010 to the end of September 2011, Citadele has paid the State 23.3 million Euros, or 16.3 million Lats, in interest for the received aid, which includes State term deposits and the subordinated loan.

The outstanding amount of State deposits that Citadele has to repay after this instalment is 93.2 million Euros or 65.5 million Lats. In quarterly instalments Citadele will repay this sum by the end of March next year.

Information about Citadele’s operating results during the first half of 2011.
Citadele Bank has finished the first half of 2011 with profit before impairment charges and tax of 5.4 million Lats (Group 4.6 million Lats). This resulted in net profit of 0.2 million Lats (Group 0.3 million Lats) after taxes.

According to the financial data for the first half of 2011, Citadele’s total assets amount to 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 year of 2011 reached 1.01 billion Lats (Group – 1.18 billion Lats). The bank’s capital asset ratio is reported to be 13.0% (Group – 10.7%) and its liquidity ratio is a healthy 62%.

According to data as of 30 June 2011, Citadele is the third largest bank in Latvia in terms of attracted deposits (9.7% market share), the sixth largest bank according to the amount of assets (6.5% market share) and the fifth largest by the total amount of loans issued (5.2% market share).

As announced previously, during its first year of activity, Citadele Bank reimbursed a total of 44.9 million Lats or 63.9 million Euros invested by the State already twice ahead of schedule. During its first year, the bank has paid to the State a total of 12.8 million Lats in interest for the received support.

During its first year of activity, commencing on August 2010, Citadele has started offering such new and unique products for the Baltics as the New Mortgage Loan and Citadele Payment Card. Citadele is the only collaboration partner of American Express® in Latvia and Lithuania who is entitled to issue American Express credit cards. In order to facilitate business development, during 2011 Citadele Bank has started issuing funding of European Investment Bank to small and medium enterprises the total amount of which is 100 million Euros.

13’963 new clients have chosen Citadele Bank since August 2010.

According to data of market and public opinion research centre SKDS, during its first year Citadele succeeded at increasing the share of Latvia’s residents who see the Bank as a stable, safe, convenient and advantageous institution.

A study conducted by Data Serviss Finance Track research agency also serves as proof of this tendency – Citadele’s results are the 4th best on the market in all awareness indices.