OREANDA-NEWS. January 23, 2012. As part of the ongoing process of asset recovery and realization the Bankruptcy administrator has today announced a new management structure within SNORAS Bank (the Bank). Under this new structure 904 of the Bank’s 1351 employees at the announcement of bankruptcy will be retained on fixed term contracts, reported the press-centre of SNORAS Bank.

Commenting on the announcement Bankruptcy Administrator Neil Cooper said the following:

“We have two clear tasks as we seek to derive the maximum possible value for creditors – Firstly we are continuing to identify and where possible recover missing assets both here in Lithuania and worldwide. Secondly we are actively engaged in seeking a buyer for the Bank’s infrastructure, systems and platforms. This new structure provides the support my team and I need to focus on these key workstreams and deliver the best results for creditors”.

Under the new structure there are 10 departments each with specific areas of responsibility, a bank staff employee and a member of the Bank Administrator’s team jointly head each department.  372 employees will be retained at SNORAS bank headquarters in Vilnius as part of the bankruptcy procedure to assist with the process of asset identification, management and realization and have initially been retained on contracts until March 20th 2012. A further 532 will be retained nationally to support the Bank’s retail operations and may potentially transfer to any new purchaser, these members of staff have been initially retained on contracts until February 29th 2012.

Within this new structure approximately 100 members of staff are involved in the administration of creditor claims assisting both individual and corporate clients with their claims as to compensation payable through the State Company Deposit and Investment Insurance. 

The cost of retaining staff will be covered by the 60.9 million Litas approved the District Court of Vilnius at the outset of bankruptcy proceedings.

Statutory redundancy entitlements for all staff will become a priority claim of the bankruptcy and will be paid through the bankruptcy process.

Neil Cooper concludes:
“We are continuing our work on behalf of creditors and we make progress each and every day. In addition to the growing number of assets we are identifying and seeking to recover we have also received over 80 expressions of interest both SNORAS and Finasta. The new structure announced today leaves us well placed to continue to build on this extremely positive work and deliver the best possible results for creditors. Finally I would like to thank all the employees of SNORAS for their hard work, dedication and professionalism at what everybody can appreciate is a difficult and challenging time”.