Luminor accelerates transformation by reorganizing its business in the Baltics

2019-02-04

During 2019 Luminor will be simplifying its operating model reducing its staff numbers from the current 3000 employees, at all levels (including management), comprising around 130 employees in Estonia, 250 employees in Latvia and 420 employees in Lithuania.

After completing its cross-border merger, whereby Luminor continues to operate in all three Baltic States through its Estonian-registered bank and its branches in Latvia and Lithuania, the company has entered its next phase of transformation and is changing its operating model. Through consolidating technological platforms, right-sizing the business, simplifying the product and service portfolio and increasing efficiency, the bank aims to accelerate transformation to build and execute in areas of superior customer experience.

To accelerate this transformation, the new operating model foresees simplifying bank’s business processes and reorganizing duplicated functions and areas where new technological approaches and organisational solutions are being introduced. As a part of the process, Luminor is also decreasing team sizes and entering collective redundancy.

Luminor has informed and involved in the process the relevant public authorities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with regard to its planned reductions, including trade unions in Estonia, Financial Sector Trade Union of Latvia and the Labour Council in Lithuania.

“With the accelerated transformations and more simplified organization, Luminor expects to significantly reduce its operating expenses, thus ensuring higher capacity to invest in the future,” said Andrius Načajus, Head of Luminor Lithuania branch.

“This transformation also means entering into a collective redundancy process, which will be carried out gradually during 2019. It has not been an easy decision to make, but it is much needed and right for further development. Luminor will offer support to departing employees and ensure professional outplacement process including workshops and individual coaching sessions to support their next steps on the labour market.”

The process is run according to local legislation, whereby all redundant employees are eligible for extra severance and additional support.

Luminor’s core business is to serve entrepreneurial people in the Baltics, with a primary focus on local companies as well as financially active people with an entrepreneurial mindset. Luminor will focus on improvements in many areas, including products and customer offerings, customer centricity, digital capabilities and teaming up with third-party service providers.

Daily operations and customer service will continue as usual. Other developments, including changes related to product alignment, launch of new customer offerings and digital advancements, will be communicated separately.

Luminor is the third-largest bank and financial services provider in the Baltics, with a 16% market share in deposits and 22% in lending. We have around one million customers and 3000 working professionals throughout the Baltics. Luminor is capitalised at 17.3% Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio, the amount of Common Equity Tier 1 capital being EUR 1.8 billion. Moody´s Investor Service has given Luminor a first-time deposits rating of Baa1 with a stable outlook. The Luminor unsecured inaugural bond with a maturity of three years was issued in October 2018 and is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange (Euronext Dublin).