OREANDA-NEWS. January 29, 2013. Targo Raus, the Chairman of the Management Board of BIGBANK, a company founded on the basis of Estonian capital and specialising in the issuing of consumer loans, resigns on 31 January. The duties of the Chairman of the Management board will be performed by Kaido Saar, who has so far been a member of the Board.

Parvel Pruunsild, the Chairman of the BIGBANK Supervisory Board, says that Targo Raus is resigning as the Chairman of the Management Board voluntarily and indicated his intention to leave some time ago. “As we have agreed, Raus has helped BIGBANK to summarise the results of 2012, and he will leave the company at the end of January,” states Pruunsild.

According to Pruunsild, the contribution of Targo Raus, who has been running BIGBANK since 2003, cannot be underestimated. “Within this period, we witnessed both the loan bubble and the economic recession, but also BIGBANK’s rapid development and economic success. Targo Raus leadership has made BIGBANK the well-capitalized international company it is today,” Pruunsild says.

Targo Raus has been the Chairman of the BIGBANK Management Board since 2003, he spent 1992–2000 as a Management Board member of Eesti Uhispank and its predecessor Tallinna Pank. “This year, I will have been working at BIGBANK for 10 years, and for over 20 years in the Estonian banking sector in general, and I find it is time to turn the page. I am handing over the reins with a light heart. BIGBANK has survived through the years of recession, and the amount of its operations has reached the level of 2007 again, whereas our foundation is much more solid today, both in the economic and geographical sense,” says Targo Raus.

Starting with 1 February 2013, the responsibilities of the Chairman of the BIGBANK Management Board will rest with Kaido Saar, who has so far been the Head ofSales and Marketing. BIGBANK has conducted a sourcing procedure to choose the person to fill the position of the Chairman of the Management Board, and the results will be known within several months.

Kaido Saar has occupied various positions at BIGBANK since 2002, and he has been a member of the Management Board since 2007.