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„The restructuring period of AS Citadele banka has been successfully completed. Citadele has made early repayments of all the Latvian State term deposits and has firm grounds for its further development. Citadele 2011 annual results are better than projected, and the Bank’s 1Q performance has also been successful. Now, we should more focus on our subsidiaries in order to improve their operational efficiency and profitability”, says Klāvs Vasks, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AS Citadele banka.

As a result of redistribution of the tasks of the Bank’s management team, Juris Jākobsons, the incumbent CEO of the Bank, will serve on Supervisory Boards of a number of the Group’s undertakings and will oversee their operations as of May this year. He will assume the responsibilities of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at AB Citadele bankas in Lithuania and a member of the Supervisory Board at AP Anlage & Privatbank AG in Switzerland. Juris Jākobsons is currently the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Citadele Asset Management IPAS and will continue to serve on Supervisory Boards of AAS Citadele Life and AS Citadele atklātais pensiju fonds. Since Juris Jākobsons will commence his work on the Supervisory Boards of the Bank’s subsidiaries, he will leave the position of Chief Executive Officer of AS Citadele banka, informs BC head of corporate communication division at Citadele Bank Ieva Prauliņa.

“Currently we, the entire Citadele Group, should pay more attention to the development of Citadele’s subsidiaries. Therefore, Citadele’s Supervisory Board and we, Citadele’s Executive Board, have agreed on the redistribution of tasks of the Bank’s management team with the aim to increase the efficiency of the Bank’s subsidiaries. In future I will be very much involved in the activities of the Supervisory Boards of Citadele Group’s subsidiaries and oversee the work of a number of their Executive Boards, therefore, due to the heavy workload it will be impossible for me to also duly serve on the Bank’s Executive Board. The aim of the redistribution of tasks of the management team is to facilitate a rapid development of Citadele’s undertakings not only in Latvia, but also in 10 other countries,” says Juris Jākobsons, CEO of AS Citadele banka.

According to Klāvs Vasks, Chairman of Citadele’s Supervisory Board, in the coming months the Bank’s Supervisory Board will organise a selection process of the candidate for the position of Citadele’s Chief Executive Officer in line with the best corporate governance practices. “Currently the professional level and expertise of the management team is sufficiently high, therefore, the candidate for the position will have to meet specific and high requirements. The Supervisory Board will timely inform the broad public about the possible changes in the Bank's Executive Board," says Klāvs Vasks.

Guntis Beļavskis, Executive Board member and proctor, currently in charge of corporate and retail banking, product development, sales and marketing sectors, will be the Chairman of the Executive Board of AS Citadele banka as of 1 May. As from May the Bank’s Executive Board will temporarily continue working with four members on the Executive Board. Subsequent to the selection process of the Chief Executive Officer in the coming months the number of Executive Board members will be increased to five pursuant to the Articles of Association of the Bank. 

Today AS Citadele banka’s”Executive Board consists of Guntis Beļavskis, Chief Business Officer, Valters Ābele, Chief Risk Officer, having a vast experience in auditing and financial consulting, Kaspars Cikmačs, Chief Operating Officer, in charge of administrative services, IT, security and CIT business with 16 years of experience in banking, Philip Allard, Chief Financial Officer, has been working in the financial sector for 25 years.

As reported earlier, the owner of 75 % minus one share of AS Citadele banka is   VAS Privatizācijas aģentūra, and 25 % plus one share is owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.  

The Supervisory Board of AS Citadele banka consists of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Klāvs Vasks, the Deputy Chairman, Juris Vaskāns, the members of the Supervisory Board, Ģirts Freibergs, Laurence Phillip Adams and Geoffrey Dunn.