On October 11, 2018 Sigma Ratings Inc. announced its first-ever Sigma Rating for a Latvian banking institution: Norvik Banka achieved a rating outlook of BB+ (Stable), which places it within reach of the “Industry Leader” segment (BBB and above).

By means of this independent rating on financial crime vulnerability and governance, Norvik Banka is demonstrating the differentiated strength of its compliance controls and efforts to uphold global financial transparency standards.

Sigma assessed Norvik’s financial crime risk as “MODERATE” with control effectiveness as “ESTABLISHED”. The rating notes that the bank broadly has strong financial crime controls in place and has made considerable progress in strengthening its risk posture. Norvik is the first Latvian bank to receive a rating of this kind.

“We are committed to ensuring a strong compliance function and have invested in new, world-class compliance tools. Most importantly, we have invested in our people by training and expanding our compliance staff,” said Norvik Banka CEO, Oliver Bramwell. “We are eager to showcase the return on our compliance investment by way of our BB+ rating and remain committed to strengthening next year’s rating further.”

Sigma Ratings reviewed Norvik’s inherent risk environment and control effectiveness around Financial Crime Compliance (FCC). The review included FCC factors specific to anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, sanctions, and aspects of other non-credit risk issues such as geo-political risk and national-level regulatory proficiency. This process included a desk review of data and meetings with executive management, compliance, internal audit and front-line staff at Norvik Banka in Riga, Latvia.

“Our mission is to support global business and banking growth by enhancing transparency and standardizing metrics for good corporate behavior,” said Sigma Ratings Chief Executive Officer Stuart Jones, Jr. “In an increasingly challenging risk environment, our ratings provide the gold standard that helps streamline the financial crime risk assessment process for financial institutions. If a bank pursues a rating, it’s because it wants to demonstrate commitment to openness and the fight against financial crime.”

The full report is available here.

About Sigma Ratings:

Sigma Ratings, Inc. (“Sigma”) is the global leader in non-credit company risk ratings. Sigma is the world’s first A.I.-assisted non-credit risk rating agency deploying a proprietary algorithm, deep domain expertise and innovative technology to rate a company’s vulnerability to financial crime risk. Unlike traditional credit rating agencies, Sigma is focused on emerging markets and provides novel, dynamic, entity-level risk analytics that are not available anywhere else. By collecting and quantifying specific operational risk data around compliance, governance and other non-credit risk factors, Sigma empowers emerging market companies to differentiate and enhances global banks and investors’ ability to assess counterparty risk.