Baltic Banks to Shun `Existential' Risks From Ex-Soviet Cash
- Non-resident risks are ‘unmanageable,’ Luminor Group CEO says
- Money-laundering scandals have tarnished Latvia and Estonia
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A spate of Baltic money-laundering scandals has put an end to some banks’ focus on attracting foreign cash, according to the region’s third-largest lender.
The non-resident business will all but disappear because banks in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania can’t afford the “unmanageable” and “existential” risks it poses, said Erkki Raasuke, chief executive officer of Luminor Group, a joint venture between Nordea Bank AB and DNB Bank ASA that focuses on traditional banking. He called the lenders’ withdrawal mainly a “self-regulation mechanism.”