Riga, 2016-02-29 08:48 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the 4th quarter of 2015, the Bank continued to work investing money in its business development according to the new business model. Taking in account the growing requirements of the supervisory authority of Latvia and the EU authorities in the field of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (AML Policy), and following the plan of its internal restructuring Trasta komercbanka decided to improve the internal control system. To this end, the Bank has invested in both IT and human resources, has tightened client supervision, as well as has improved the processes of identification and prevention of possible AML risks. Several young professionals with wide experience in this field and relevant international certificates have started to work in the Bank's AML team. A number of AML risk prevention related processes, such as risk assessment, monitoring and prevention; assessment and approval of clients, have been improved and enhanced.
Just like in the previous quarters of 2015, one of the priorities in the work of the Bank is the introduction of new technologies. In the 4-th quarter, the CRM system was launched, which will be further developed in 2016.
The Bank's assets in the 4th quarter of 2015 amounted to EUR 432.12 million, which is by EUR 148.99 million less than the final figure of 2014. Accordingly, by the end of the reporting period, the volume of attracted deposits was EUR 343.53 million, but the Bank's loan portfolio reached EUR 96.31 million. The Bank ended the 4th quarter of 2015 at a loss of EUR 4.66 million. Thanks to the prudent dividend payout policy in the pre-crisis years, now the Bank has at its disposal the capital reserves of retained earnings in the amount of EUR 10.9 million. The Bank's capital and reserves as at 31 December 2015 amounted to EUR 37.34 million.
In order to strengthen the capital base, in July 2015, the Bank decided to increase its share capital by EUR 15 000 000, issuing additionally 15 000 000 voting shares with the nominal value and sale price of EUR 1.00 per share. As a result of the fifteenth share issue, the share capital of AS TRASTA KOMERCBANKA will amount to EUR 35 641 316 and consist of 35 641 316 registered shares. The due date by which the shares must be paid up is 10 March 2016.
The Bank's consolidation group consists of the subsidiary companies: “TKB Līzings” and its subsidiary “TKB Leasing Tajikistan”, “TKB LU” and “Project 1”; and also “Heckbert C7 Holdings” and its subsidiary „Ferrous Kereskedelmi KFT”. The amount of Group’s assets as at the end of the reporting period was EUR 420.96 million, which is by EUR 153.17 million less than the final figure of 2014. The Group ended the 4th quarter of 2015 at a loss of EUR 6.21 million.
The management confirms that the consolidated financial statements and the separate financial statements set out on pages 4 to 26 for the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015 have been prepared consistently applying relevant accounting methods and the management’s judgments and estimates in relation to the preparation of these statements are reasonable and prudent. The management confirms that the applicable International Financial Reporting Standards have been used in the preparation of the financial statements and that these financial statements have been prepared on a going concern concept basis. The purpose of the statements is to present comprehensive information regarding the financial standing of the Bank and the Group, performance results, and the Bank's activities -related risks.
Events after balance sheet date
The Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) on 22.01.2016 decided to impose restrictions on the activities of the Bank, forbidding it from performing debit transactions in any currency, including through online banking, ATMs and by cash, with clients in the amount that exceeds EUR 100 000 per depositor.
The Bank is working strenuously to eliminate the shortcomings in its work identified by the FCMC, the Bank continues to work in the ordinary and usual course, provides services and fulfils obligations to customers, complying with the restrictions of the FCMC requirements. The Bank is a solvent entity which continues to provide services to customers within the scope of the restrictions applied by the FCMC (up to EUR 100 000).
This financial report for the 4th quarter of 2015 has not been audited and it has been prepared based on unaudited financial statements for this period.
This financial report was approved by the Board of the Bank on February 22, 2016 and it is available on the Bank’s website at www.tkb.eu.
