Banks, Financial Services, Funds, Latvia, Legislation

He said in an interview with the LNT show "900 sekundes" that during the crisis, all private banks suffered losses in the amount of several hundred million euros. Thus, it would be naive to hope that the state, as the bank's shareholder, would be able to avoid losses.

Dombrovskis believes that this is a very beneficial moment to sell Citadele. If not for Saeima elections this fall, this would be a perfect moment to sell it.

"Foreign investors are highly interested in the bank. All suitable offers will be submitted on Friday. If everything goes as planned, then we could sign an agreement to sell Citadele at the beginning of August," Dombrovskis said.

Currently, the state has retrieved 66% (EUR 247.6 million) of the funds that were allotted to Citadele. The Latvian Privatization Agency calculated that the remaining sum is EUR 130.3 million.

In 2010, Latvia allotted EUR 377.9 million to Citadele from the state budget, EUR 203.7 million of which were meant to support the bank's liquidity, EUR 109.9 – was invested in the bank's capital, and EUR 64.3 million in the subordinated capital, according to the Latvian Privatization Agency.