Latvian boutique bank Signet Bank confirmed that it had completed the takeover of another Latvian bank, LPB Bank, eng.lsm.lv, the website of Latvian national broadcaster LSM, reported on December 12.

"Following the approval of the Bank of Latvia and the European Central Bank, and the approval of the Competition Council, on 11 December 2023 a transaction was completed whereby a local investment bank, AS Signet Bank, acquired AS LPB Bank," Signet said in a release.

The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Signet Bank and LPB Bank will continue to operate as separate credit institutions and there will be no current changes in the day-to-day handling and servicing of customers. In future. LPB Bank customers who use traditional banking products will be offered cooperation with Signet Bank. In turn LPB Bank will focus on servicing FinTech companies, offering them a wider range of products.

LPB bank – formerly known as Latvijas Pasta Banka (Latvian Postal Bank) has not been immune to controversy over the years and achieved unwanted prominence in 2016 when it was fined €305,000 for failing to stop massive payments through its accounts in connection with a billion-euro 2012-2013 Moldovan fraud according to a report by independent financial investigators Kroll, carried out for the National Bank of Moldova. It subsequently produced a revised business plan.

More recently the chairman and main shareholder of LPB bank stepped down after becoming a chief suspect in an ongoing murder case. 

In 2020 Signet Bank was itself fined nearly a million euros by the financial regulator for breaches of the anti-money laundering and counter terrorism and proliferation financing (AML) regulatory requirements. Last year it acquired another local bank, Expobank, eng.lsm.lv said.