RBC DAILY. Swedbank plans to make a management reshuffle, RBC daily learned. The lender’s current management board chairman Raimo Valo is not to extend his employment contract, and his seat will be occupied by Elena Lozovaya, whose appointment is currently under approval at the Bank of Russia. Before joining Swedbank Lozovaya worked at different times as vice president of management company Convers Group, held general director positions at Eurotransservice and Investsberbank. A Swedbank source confirmed Valo will not renew his employment contract with the bank and plans to return with his family to his native country Finland.
Apart from the management shakeup, other serious changes are expected at the bank. The lender plans to partly roll down retail and SME business and to focus on the corporate sector. Since the beginning of October the bank has not taken private deposits, with all term deposits to be automatically prolonged at the unified rate of 0.1%. The bank does not accept credit product applications (including overdraft on cards issued to corporate customers). The lender also suspended operations to lease safety deposit boxes, issue and re-issue plastic cards (except for payroll projects executed by corporate customers).
Swedbank declined to comment on the reasons behind changes in its customer policy, specifying the Baltic States and Scandinavian corporate sector remains a priority for the bank. Swedbank sources assured on Wednesday that two events are not interrelated and the appointment of a new management board chairman is driven solely by the decision Raimo Valo adopted.
It’s noteworthy that Swedish Swedbank several times reviewed the possibility of selling its Russian subsidiary bank. For example, a year ago UK lender Barclays was viewed as a potential buyer of Russia-based Swedbank. This spring Swedbank held talks over the possible sale of its subsidiary bank to Finnish Pohjola Bank Oyj, but the deal fell through.
Recently international rating agency Moody’s withdrew all its ratings on Swedbank’s Russian and Ukrainian divisions. The bank’s representatives said this was a decision adopted by Swedbank Group, as the bank has no plans to raise funds on international markets, and the parent bank’s funds and deposits are main sources of funding the subsidiary bank.
