Unibanka
Having outperformed its rivals last year, Unibanka, part of Sweden’s SEB Group, is the winner in Latvia. Recent upgrades of its debt rating and improved customer service were additional factors that weighed heavily in Unibanka’s favour.
The bank, one of Latvia’s top three institutions in terms of loan portfolio, deposits and assets, increased net profit last year by almost 16% to a record E22.2m and achieved an ROE of 21.5%. It posted gains in assets and Tier 1 capital while keeping its cost-to-income ratio at about 58%.
Unibanka’s strong performance in 2002 was rewarded by debt rating upgrades by US rating agency Moody’s: its long-term debt rating rose to A2 from A3, and the rating for its short-term bank deposits was raised to Prime-1 from Prime-2.
The bank continued to upgrade its electronic banking services, which are used by 15% of its 474,000 retail and business clients.
