Regulator Warns Not All Threats to Banking Are Structural
Financial Supervision Authority board member Kilvar Kessler said the failure of a Lithuanian-owned Latvian bank is symptomatic of a trend of "white-collar crooks" entering the banking sector.
"The lesson for Estonia is clear - what should be feared in the banking sector is not just a weak loan portfolio, unstable refinancing or declining markets, but also an influx of white-collar crooks," he wrote in a piece in Äripäev.
"We at the Financial Supervision Authority sense a suspicious bunch that promise ordinary people exorbitant gains have become more active," Kessler wrote in a piece for the business daily.
"In the recent past, a Cayman Islands company wanted to acquire a stake in a relatively large Estonian bank," he said.
"It was conspicuous that these individuals with their good education and noteworthy experience did not have a clear business view with regard to the future of this Estonian credit institution," said Kessler.
Kessler said that the company was an investment fund that could and was ultimately traced back to an individual in Slovakia, who when contacted directly "unexpectedly lost interest."
Kristopher Rikken