Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has turned to the State Security Service (VDD) over Hungarian banking group OTP Bank’s plan to acquire the Baltic banking group, Luminor Bank, LSM reports. He noted that the statement of intent on the possible acquisition was just the start of the process, adding that regulatory approval for the deal would ultimately be decided by the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority and the European Central Bank. Meanwhile, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs characterised OTP Bank’s possible acquisition of Luminor as a “reputational question.” However, he insisted that politicians should not get involved in the issue. Earlier, questions were raised about OTP Bank’s continued operations in Russia. Jekaterina Kuzmina, associate professor at BA School of Business and Finance of the University of Latvia, said that many Latvians would likely choose to have nothing to do with a bank that was still active in Russia.
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