Hansapank                     NEWS RELEASE                08/30/2002 09:15



GROUP WILL EXPAND LEASING ACTIVITES TO RUSSIA



Hansabank Group will establish Hansa Leasing Russia (HLR) as a

subsidiary of Group´s leasing and factoring arm Hansa Capital. HLR

will offer asset-based financial services to the clients of the

Russian transit sector.



On its regular meeting on 29th of August, the Supervisory Council of

Hansabank Group decided to restart offering leasing services in

Russia. Council approved business plan for establishing Hansa Leasing

Russia (HLR) as a subisidiary of Group´s leasing and factoring arm

Hansa Capital and decided to invest EUR 8 million in the share capital

of HLR. The subsidiary will be formed in co-operation with European

Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who is interested to

have a stake in the established subsidiary.



Hansa Capital, which controls currently 50% of leasing and factoring

market in Baltic States, had operations in Russia during years 1997-

98. After Russian crisis, active business operations were frozen.

Current re-establishment of operations will be conducted under a new

business concept, having the focus on offering asset-based financial

services to the clients active of the transit sector.



Mart Tooming, Chairman of the Board of Hansa Capital, stated

"Hansa Capital has investigated the possibilities of expanding its

leasing operations to Russia, following the logic of financing the

chain of transit. We targeted our research on the most important field

of Russian transit sector - Russian ports and railway. Previous

experience of Hansa Capital in Russia and Ukraine has proved the need

for focusing to finance activities, which are familiar and also most

reliable. Therefore, Hansa Capital has not taken the objective to be

the provider of a wide range of leasing products in Russia, but will

rather focus on the transit and expanding value chain for our Baltic

customers active in Russian transit sector."



Hansabank Group’s position is to keep the size of the leasing and

factoring portfolio in Russia within the limit of 5% of the Group’s

total credit risk portfolio. Preparations for forming new unit are

coordinated by Aarne Saareväli, Head of Factoring Division in Hansa

Leasing Estonia for past five years. Hansa Leasing Russia´s head

office will be located in Moscow and the start-up team will consist of

4 employees. The new unit will start operations in the fourth quarter

of current year.



Hansabank (www.hansagroup.com) is the leading financial group in the

Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), providing financial

intermediation services to around 2.9 million customers. Established

in 1991, the Group today controls over 1/3 of the Baltic market with

total assets of 5 billion euros. In addition to universal banks in

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Group also includes the largest

leasing and factoring company in the Baltic countries, Hansa Capital

and the corporate bank Hansabank Markets. Hansabank Group employs over

6,000 employees. The Hansabank share is listed on the main list of HEX

Tallinn since 1996.





Livia Kulm

Corporate Communications

+372 6 133 816