On 25 May 2009, the Supervisory Council of Parex banka has approved the Bank's audited financial results for 2008. In 2008, Parex Group experienced an overall slowdown in growth as compared to prior years. The Group's assets have grown 3.9% as compared to 35.8% in 2007. Loans have increased 6.5% on a gross basis reaching 2.15 billions lats. The amount of the Group's deposits represented 2.02 billion lats. The financial result for the year was substantially impacted by provisions established to reflect the deterioration in asset quality. The loan portfolio was deeply affected by the rapidly worsening Latvian economic situation and stagnation in the Latvian real estate sector. As a result of a prudent assessment of its portfolio in the light of current trends and given the adverse situation in the financial markets, the Management established net provisions amounting to 160 million lats. As a result, the net loss for the Group for the year ended 2008 comprised 131 million lats. About Parex banka: Founded in 1992, Parex banka offers universal banking services throughout the Baltic region, the CIS and other European nations such as Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. Parex Group companies operate across the banking, finance, leasing, asset management and life insurance sectors. Parex banka is the only partner of American Express in Latvia and Lithuania, allowed to issue American Express credit cards. Since 27 February 2008, the Latvian Privatisation Agency is the majority shareholder of Parex banka. Additional information: Indra Zinkevica Head of Corporate Communications and PR Parex banka Ph. +371 6777 8571 or +371 2913 9449 E-mail: pr@parex.lv http://www.parexgroup.com/en/