Reverta is a professional-distressed asset management company headquartered in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. With branches in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

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Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

and representative offices in

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Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

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and other cities, the company employs 2,600 staff in 14 countries.

History

Parex Banka was founded in 1992 by Valery Kargin and Viktor Krasovickis as one of the early privately held banks of the post-Soviet era. It initially observed conservative lending practices, allowing it to weather a 1995 Latvian banking crisis and a 1998 Russian financial collapse which brought down Riga Commercial Bank. Emboldened by this initial success, it began to pursue an aggressive expansion into neighboring countries. In 2003,

Parex Bank Parex Bank was a Latvian bank founded in 1992 by Valērijs Kargins and as a privately owned full-service banking company in Riga, Latvia that was very dominant in currency exchange in the 1990s. It had local and international clients in both t ...

commissioned the building of a new 150,000-m² headquarters in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. In 2005, it launched the first

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

cards in Latvia. The bank opened

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a sa ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, operating successfully until the

Financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

. Much of its lending was within the

Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

and the bank was heavily exposed to the

real estate bubble A real-estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets) is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real-estate markets, and typically follow a land boom. A land boom is the rapid increase ...

which followed Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia becoming full

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

members in 2004. Events leading to the September 15, 2008, failure of US bank

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

led to a sharp drop in liquidity, causing international investors to withdraw assets. Parex Bank was nationalised on November 8, 2008. The Latvian state bought 51% of the bank's stocks from the founders for a symbolic 2 Lats. In addition, 34% of the stocks were transferred to the state-owned Mortgage and Land Bank as a security. On August 1, 2010, Parex was split into good and

bad bank A bad bank is a corporate structure which isolates illiquid and high risk assets (typically non-performing loans) held by a bank or a financial organisation, or perhaps a group of banks or financial organisations. A bank may accumulate a large por ...

s, with the good bank spun off as Citadele banka. Within days of the split, Parex sued both of its founders, accusing them of conflict of interest in their dealings with the bank. In August 2010 it was announced that Chris Gwilliam would replace Nils Melngailis as Chairman of the Board and CEO.Baltic Business News - Chris Gwilliam to become new CEO of Parex Banka
/ref> Parex continued to manage troubled and bad assets, but no longer functioned as a deposit-taking bank. The Parex banking licence was abandoned on March 15, 2012; the company became distressed asset management firm Reverta on May 8, 2012. Ms. Solvita Deglava, is (as of 2014) CEO and Chairperson of the Board. Reverta defines itself as specialising in loan restructuring, legal recovery and real estate management with expertise in corporate finance, asset management, legal and security.

References

External links

Parex banka and American Express launch the first American Express cards in Latvia
- American Express press release

- Architect's press release

External links

Reverta AS
{{2008 economic crisis Banks of Latvia Banks established in 1992 Companies based in Riga Latvian companies established in 1992