OREANDA-NEWS. Due to the high level of capitalization of Swedbank Latvia, the European Central Bank and the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission has given the permission to reduce the bank’s equity capital. The change will have no impact on operations and the bank will remain to be one of the best capitalized in Latvia.

In order to further optimize the Group’s capital structure, Swedbank Latvia has obtained the permission from the regulators to reduce the equity capital from 942,856,206 EUR to 575,000,000 EUR and to pay out accumulated dividends. After the reduction, the equity capital of Swedbank Latvia will remain at a level that exceeds the capital adequacy requirements.

M?ris Man?inskis, the CEO of Swedbank Latvia: “Taking into account Swedbank’s financial performance indicators, we have decided to reduce the bank’s capitalisation level and to transfer to the parent company that part of the capital which, in the current low interest rate environment, creates an additional administrative and financial burden. At the same time, the bank will still retain a high safety buffer and be the best capitalized one among the leading banks in Latvia.”