Hansapank                     NEWS RELEASE                      09/25/2003



HANSABANK GROUP CHANGES ITS STRUCTURE



From October 1, Hansabank will change to country-based management,

simplifying the organizational structure.



The new business units will be Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where

Hansabank offers all financial services, and Russia, where it is

active in leasing and trade finance. In the new organizational

structure, leasing companies that so far were consolidated under Hansa

Capital, will be integrated into country-based business units.



Indrek Neivelt, CEO of Hansabank Group: "We are changing the

organizational structure to make it simpler and easier to understand,

both, for our customers as well as employees. The banks and leasing

companies, so far managed separately, will now form a cohesive and

strong team, which supports our strategy to offer all financial

services from one place."



Although switching to country-based management of business units, the

Group also sees synergies in cross-border cooperation. IT and product

development are managed centrally on Group-level, as are risk and

financial management. Also, exchange of experience and know-how

continues in area committees. Ugis Zemturis continues as Head of Group

Retail Banking Committee, while the Group Corporate Banking Committee

will as of January 1, 2004 be headed by Giedrius Dusevicius, currently

the head of Lithuanian Hanza Lizingas.



The Estonian country manager will be Erkki Raasuke, currently managing

director of corporate banking. Board member Andres Liinat will

continue in his current position as head of retail banking. Latvian

business will be headed by Ingrida Bluma, chairperson of the board of

Hansabanka. The Lithuanian country manager will be Darius Nedzinskas,

who will be chairman of the Board of Hansabankas from 1 November.

Russian operations will be coordinated by Indrek Neivelt.



The structural changes also include the sale of the pan-Baltic asset

realization company BRC as a non-core business.



Hansabank Group structure as of 1 October 2003:

<a href='http://www.hansa.ee/en_pdf/HBG011003.pdf' target='_blank'>http://www.hansa.ee/en_pdf/HBG011003.pdf</a>





Mart Tõevere

Head of investor relations

+372 6131 569