ABLV Bank to fire 250 employees in April

  • 2018-04-15
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA – Latvia’s ABLV Bank whose shareholders made a decision on voluntary liquidation, will fire 250 employees in April, said ABLV group’s spokesman Arturs Eglitis.

By the end of the year it is planned to fire more employees. At present, among the fired employees there are IT specialists, product development and marketing specialists, employees of the mortgage center, private bankers, their assistants, employees of the customer center and administration, financial and risk management specialists.

More than 400 employees will continue work in the bank to ensure efficient operation of the comapny during the liquidation process. A decision still has to be made on the group’s companies.

"Last year ABLV Bank was the second best employer in Latvia. The bank will prove this also during the liquidation process by paying additional benefits to employees," said Eglitis, adding that employees will also receive information on how to apply to the State Employment Agency, how to prepare a CV. The bank will also share information about job offers from its customers and partners.

As reported, shareholders of ABLV Bank at an extraordinary meeting on February 26 made a decision to start the liquidation process in order to protect interests of its clients and creditors. ABLV Bank believes that in this way it will be possible to ensure active protection of its customers, the bank said in a statement.

The Latvian financial regulator, the Finance and Capital Market Commission, acting on the instructions from the European Central Bank (ECB), has ordered ABLV Bank to stop all payments as of February 19 following a report by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of Treasury about ABLV Bank's involvement in international money laundering schemes and corruption. On February 24, the Finance and Capital Market Commission made a decision on occurrence of unavailability of deposits at ABLV Bank.

At the end of 2017, ABLV Bank was the fourth largest bank in Latvia by assets. The bank's majority shareholders Olegs Fils, Ernests Bernis and Nika Berne own, directly and indirectly, 87.03 percent of the bank's share capital.