Statistical data as at 12 March 2009 indicate that notwithstanding the sharp economic slowdown in Latvia and worldwide, customers willingly use Parex banka's services for depositing their free assets - total deposits at Parex banka have exceeded 1,8 billion lats, including 674 million lats in deposits from the State Treasury. The deposit amount in the segments of corporate customers and private individuals is stable - the number of corporate depositors has surpassed 19 thousand enterprises. Furthermore, circa 265 thousand private individuals, including more than 244 thousand Latvian residents have entrusted their assets to Parex banka. Moreover, the number of active credit cards issued by Parex banka has exceeded 182,632 cards as at 01 March 2009, putting Parex banka in the first place in Latvia by number of active credit cards. Circa 90 thousand of the active credit cards are Parex banka's American Express Cards - American Express Platinum Card, American Express Gold and American Express Blue. According to the data, the total amount of active payment cards issued by Parex banka exceeds 437 thousand. About Parex banka: Founded in 1992, Parex banka offers universal banking services throughout the Baltic region, the CIS and other European nations such as Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. Parex Group companies operate across the banking, finance, leasing, asset management and life insurance sectors. Parex banka is the only partner of American Express in Latvia and Lithuania, allowed to issue American Express credit cards. Since 27 February 2008, the Latvian Privatisation Agency is the majority shareholder of Parex banka. Additional information: Indra Zinkevica Head of Corporate Communications and PR Ph. +371 6777 8571 or +371 2913 9449 E-mail: pr@parex.lv http://www.parexgroup.com/en/