"The joint stock company AS Meridian Trade Bank has changed its name to Industra Bank (Industra). The new name reflects a change in the bank’s business strategy, following which the bank will be further on focusing on the cooperation with small and middle-sized companies in Latvia and other Baltic States and on the provision of services necessary for a successful business development to these companies," the bank said in a statement.
The brand Industra is planned to be phased in gradually over the year and customers of the bank are not required to perform any additional actions.
“Industra is a bank for businessmen operating in the real economy – for manufacturers, service providers, people who put their business ideas into practice. The name of Industra embodies this ambitious goal – to provide a true business partnership to support entrepreneur activities which, through their energy and determination, create new values, irrespective of types of business – ranging from farmers to innovators bringing in new technologies,” said Jurijs Adamovičs, chairman of the bank.
“Along with changing and streamlining our business model, work on strengthening the Bank's first-tier capital is also currently in its final stage," added Adamovičs.
It is not the first time the bank has changed its name in search of a new start. Originally named Multibanka it was renamed SMP Bank in 2006 when it was bought by the Russian bank of the same name, it changed its name to Meridian Trade Bank in 2014 after Russia's SMP sold its stake in the company to a group of Latvia-resident individuals when SMP was added to the U.S. sanctions list.
Meridian was fined 455,000 euros in 2018 for failures in its anti money-laundering systems and 889,000 euros in 2017 for inadequate internal control functions in the area of credit risk management. It was also fined 14,200 euros in 2018 for failure to submit and publish an audited annual report.
LTV's De Facto investigative show reported on Meridian Trade Bank a couple of years ago.
The bank has 13 customer centres in Latvia and three customer centres in Lithuania. It claims to have more than 30 thousand customers and at the end of the third quarter of 2019, the consolidated assets of the Bank’s Group were 173 million euros, while the earnings for the three quarters of 2019 amounted to 423,000 euros.
