New Council of Parex banka was elected during extraordinary meeting of shareholders on Tuesday 6 April 2010. Following Council members were elected – Juris Jākobsons, Michael J. Bourke, Laurence Phillip Adams, Juris Vaskāns and Klāvs Vasks.

Two new representatives were elected to the Council – Juris Jākobsons, Project Manager of Parex banka restructuring issues at Latvian Privatisation Agency, and Klāvs Vasks, Member of the Board at Latvian Guarantee Agency. Both appointed Council Members have more than 15 years of extensive experience in banking sector.

Since January 2010 Juris Jākobsons is Project Manager of Parex banka restructuring issues at Latvian Privatisation Agency. Previously he held position of Chairman of the Board and President at Vereinsbank Riga (later renamed HVB Bank Latvia, currently UniCredit Bank), prior being also Member of the Board and Vice-president at SEB Bank Latvija. Mr Jākobsons has an Executive MBA from Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.

While Klāvs Vasks holds the position of Member of the Board at Latvian Guarantee Agency since July 2009, having previously attained extensive banking experience at SEB Bank Latvija, where he was Vice-president, Head of Restructuring and workout and Head of Large Corporate Banking. Mr. Vasks has attained a MBA at Riga Business School.
As previously announced representatives of Ministry of Finance Andžs Ūbelis and Kaspars Āboliņš have resigned from Parex banka’s Council effective 31 March 2010. A.Ūbelis was the Chairman of the Council since 28 December 2008. Both former Members of Parex banka’s Council did not receive any financial awards for efforts in the Bank’s Council and will not receive any compensations for the resignation.
Ministry of Finance has stated that the post-crisis stabilisation stage has come to its conclusion and the restructuring phase has begun; thus, the importance of Ministry’s representative presence at the management of the Bank has decreased. Further indicator of the stabilisation of the Latvian economy is decision of international rating agency Moody’s Investors Service to increase Latvia’s future development evaluation from negative to stable.
About Parex banka:

Founded in 1992, Parex banka currently employs around 1 800 people in Latvia. The Bank offers universal banking services throughout the Baltic Region, the CIS and other European nations such as Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. Parex Group companies operate across the banking, finance, leasing, asset management and life insurance sectors. Currently, 76,6 % of the Bank’s shares are held by Latvian Privatisation Agency, while the EBRD is the owner of 19,7% of Parex banka’s shares. Parex banka has signed up to the European Code of Conduct on housing loans.

Additional information:
Inga Saleniece
Corporate Communications Manager
Telephone: +371 67778870 or +371 26564629
E-mail: pr@parex.lv