History

History of Merita Bank Riga Branch starts from April 1992 when The Investment Bank of Latvia was founded under the aegis of the Baltic Investment Program (Northern Countries Aid Program for the development of market economy in the Baltic Countries). The shareholders of the bank were Latvian state, EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd. (Finland), Swedfund International AB (Sweden) and Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (Germany).

The structure of shareholders changed a lot on November 1997, when present shareholder Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd. (Finland) together with Merita Bank Plc and Nordic Investment bank became major shareholders with 66% of shares.

The significant changes in the shareholders structure took place on March 1999, when MeritaNordbanken Group became the only shareholder of the bank. This allowed introducing the new name - MeritaNordbanken Latvia starting April 1999.

In January 2000 Scandinavia's MeritaNordbanken Group announced expansion plans in Baltic countries. It has been decided to buy Riga branch of the French bank Société Générale. This acquisition doubled business volume of the bank in Latvia. The transfer of the ownership took place on March 31, 2000.

In April 1, 2000 Merita Bank Plc Riga branch took over functions of MeritaNordbanken Latvia and Société Générale Riga branch.

On December 3, 2001, in the process of uniting all banks in Nordea group and establishing an integrated name, Riga’s branch name Merita Bank was  replaced with Nordea Bank Latvia Branch, which is another step closer to complete integration of Nordea group.

Currently Nordea Bank Latvia branch is the only foreign bank branch in Latvia.

Nordea Finance Latvia branch - a branch of leasing company, which is part of Nordea group, is also set up for operation in Latvia.