Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) will merge its Baltic life insurance operations into one company, headquartered in Riga, reports The Baltic Course. Simplification of the operation model and improve services and solutions are the main reasons of the merger.

Currently SEB operates in the life insurance and private pensions field, in the Baltic region, through four units: SEB Life and Pension Insurance in Estonia, SEB Dzivibas Apdrosinasana in Latvia, and SEB Gyvybes Draudimas in Lithuania and the Riga branch of a foreign company, Life and Pension Holding AB, which manages life and pension insurance responsibilities in the Baltics. Starting this year, Life and Pension Holding AB will be closed, whiloe the other three entities will merge in a new company named SEB Life and Pension Baltic SE, headquartered in Riga and operating in Estonia and Lithuania through local branches, SEB said. The consolidation process should be completed by early 2019.

"In view of the demographic and economic situation, the need of SEB's clients for life insurance and retirement benefits will continue to increase in the future. The merger of companies is a decision that allows, in the long run, offering our customers the best solutions in the three Baltic countries and for us to be an even better service provider," Indrek HOLST, chairman of the management board of SEB Life and Pension Insurance, said.

SEB's Baltic life insurance companies are managing together a portfolio of almost 200,000 customers and assets worth EUR 542 million. Their consolidated market share is of about 27%.