The 2020 Financial Statement of the bank and Rietumu Group, with the opinion of the auditor – BDO Latvia – has been published.
According to the Statement, in 2020 Rietumu Bank earned EUR 18.1 million in net profit, which is comparable to the results of the previous year – 2019.
In the conditions of the global economic downturn and uncertainty amid the pandemic, the bank has demonstrated stable financial performance and high resilience.
As of 31 December 2020, assets of the bank amount to EUR 1.5 billion, deposits of customers are EUR 1.1 billion and total shareholders’ equity is EUR 324 million.
The key efficiency performance indicators of Rietumu Bank are at a consistently high level. Thus, the return on assets (ROA) of the bank after taxes is 1.25%, the return on equity (ROE) after taxes is 5.84%, and the capital adequacy ratio is 22.76%.
Rietumu Bank continues to focus on cooperation with large enterprises and high net worth individuals from the Baltic states and the EU. To implement promising and large-scale business projects, the bank provides its clients with both financial resources and high-quality expertise based on professionalism and experience of successful work with international enterprises in various industries.
Rolf Fuls, Chairman of the Board of Rietumu Bank, said:
“Together with other sectors of the national economy and society, we are going through a period of changes, unprecedented events and restrictions, the impact of which is felt around the world. The established types and methods of doing business are being replaced by others – fundamentally new and innovative. Transformations caused by the pandemic are taking place in all areas – from entertainment and medicine to education and agriculture. In order to grow and develop in such conditions, businesses need a professional stable financial partner that can provide support for them and allow them to attract the resources required for the transition to topical economic models of the 21st century and to the economy of the future. This is what our current experience of working with real sector enterprises dictates.”
The bank actively opens accounts for new clients, providing them with financial services and resources, supporting projects in areas such as residential and commercial real estate, manufacturing, processing, trade, agriculture, retail financial services, as well as in other industries.
Lending and business financing remain the most important priorities of Rietumu Bank. The volume of loans issued as of the end of the year amounted to EUR 606 million, while maintaining the very high quality of the loan portfolio. At the same time, the bank adheres to its traditional conservative policy of diversifying its loan portfolio by industries, number and volume of financed projects, and this explains its good and stable results, even in the situation of the general economic downturn.
“The bank's clients in the field of lending are large and medium-sized enterprises in the Baltic states, most of which have well-thought-out and ambitious plans for growth and entering new markets. The exposure of the loan portfolio in the most affected sectors, such as tourism, transportation, hospitality and catering is small, as is the impact of the difficulties in these areas on the current state of the portfolio. At the same time, we intend to continue to develop lending and we see prospects for this work,” Rolf Fuls emphasises.
The full version of the Financial Statement can be found on our website.
