Signet Bank continues to show positive growth in the first nine months of the year

Signet Bank Group continues to deliver strong business results in Q3. The third quarter ended with strong financial results, with a significant increase in business volumes – in customer numbers, deposits and loan portfolio.

In the third quarter of the year, Signet Bank Group (further – the Group) provided financing to its customers in the form of loans and bond issues, lending a total of EUR 17 million. As a result, the loan portfolio increased by 17% at the end of the quarter compared to 31 December 2022, reaching EUR 126 million. The Group’s profit for the first nine months of 2023 amounted to EUR 4,3 million.

Signet Bank has been an important partner in raising capital for local businesses – in the first nine months of 2023 a total of six bond issues were organised and over EUR 85 million was raised for business development of Latvian companies through bond issues. The total amount of financing provided to clients in Q3 exceeded EUR 110 million. “For several years now, organising bond issues and initial public offerings (IPOs) for Baltic companies, as well as providing financing to local companies in the form of loans, have been the most important areas of the Group’s activity. We will continue to focus on these products, making an important contribution to the development of the Latvian capital market and improving access to finance for local businesses,” says Roberts Idelsons, Chairman of the Board of Signet Bank.

Despite the growth in the loan portfolio, the Group’s capital adequacy ratio remained stable at a high level – at the end of Q3 it stood at 17.92%, while the liquidity coverage ratio was 147%.

The Group continues to implement and integrate the principles of its sustainability strategy, which involves promoting the availability of more sustainable financial solutions. In Q3, cooperation with the European Energy Efficiency Fund (eeef) was launched to develop and finance energy efficiency projects in Latvia. The cooperation with eeef will allow the Group to both improve its financing offer to local companies and strengthen its expertise in developing sustainable projects, as well as to contribute to climate change mitigation solutions.

“In recent months, the Latvian banking sector has faced various challenges related to the government’s discussions on bank “super-profits”. The planned introduction of an advance payment of corporate income tax of 20% of the previous year’s profits will reduce the Group’s capital growth rate and, consequently, the growth rate of its loan portfolio, which will have a negative impact on our ability to provide additional financing to Latvian businesses,” explains R. Idelsons.

About Signet Bank

Signet Bank was founded in 1991 and is one of Latvia’s first independent banks. The bank’s strategy focuses on providing financing and capital management services to local entrepreneurs and their businesses. Since the start of 2021, Signet Bank has provided customers with almost EUR 500 million of financing in the form of loans and bonds. Signet Bank’s shareholders are nine Latvian and international private investors, of whom the biggest is Signet Acquisition III (25%), whose sole shareholder is US investor Aleksandrs Solovejs; AS RIT Group (19.50 %), a Latvian company owned by the Rapoport family, and SIA Reglink (15.93 %), founded by banker Irīna Pīgozne.