Parex Bank, Latvia's second largest with Lt3.4bn ($4.8bn) in assets, is the bank that broke the Latvian government and forced it to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a Baltic market that is dominated by Scandinavian banks, Parex always stood out as the last remaining big independent commercial bank. Its founders - Valery Kargin and Viktor Krasovitsky, once Latvia's richest men - had considered selling out on numerous occasions but had always felt Parex was worth more than other banks were prepared to pay.
