Banks, Financial Services, Latvia

Citadele group, meanwhile, posted EUR 20.499 mln in loss.

Citadele's assets on September 30, 2020, reached EUR 4.18 bn, up 21.2% or EUR 732.392 mln from the end of 2019. The group's assets accounted for EUR 4.436 bn, growing 18.5% or EUR 693.62 mln from late 2019.

The bank reported that overall business sentiment improved in the third quarter of 2020. Customer activity increased and number of new customers onboarded reached almost 5,000 new clients, 55% increase q-o-q. Active customers reached 322,000 clients as of September 30, 2020, or 8% growth y-o-y.

Although the moratorium regarding united bank approach to granting grace periods on loan repayments ended in September, Citadele encourages its clients to contact the Bank promptly if they face unexpected financial challenges.

The number of requests for grace periods on loan repayments has remained comparatively low – 2,500 applications by the end of September, of which 98 % were submitted during first half of 2020.

The credit quality of the Group’s loan portfolio remained stable with very minor changes during the period.

In the first nine months of the year, EUR 327 mln were issued in new loans to private, SME and corporate customers.

In the first nine months of 2020, deposits with the bank reached EUR 3.542 mln, which was an 8 % increase compared to the end of 2019.

In 2019, Citadele Bank posted a profit of EUR 38.976 mln, which was 18% more than in 2018, while Citadele Group's profit last year was EUR 36.504 mln, which was 4.8% more than in 2018, according to the information published by the bank.

Citadele is the second largest bank in Latvia by assets.