Citadele Bank announces its intention to nominate Erkka Näsäkkälä as its new Chief Risk Officer and member of the Management Board, subject to the necessary corporate and regulatory approvals.
Erkka Näsäkkälä has more than 25 years of international leadership experience across market, credit, liquidity, non-financial and model risk, gained in major European banking groups. Before deciding to join our group, he served as Deputy Chief Risk Officer at SEB (2025-2026) and, before that, as Head of Group Risk at SEB (2017-2024).
Erkka holds a doctorate in technology Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis at Aalto University, Finland. His strong expertise in strategic planning and risk methodology, combined with regulatory knowledge and commercial acumen, makes him well placed to strengthen enterprise-wide risk frameworks, risk culture and governance under heightened supervisory scrutiny, and to lead Citadele’s Risk division.
Rūta Ežerskiene, Citadele CEO and Chair of Management Board: “Risk management is one of the areas where we are deliberately investing, and the appointment of a new Chief Risk Officer is one of our main next steps. Erkka Näsäkkälä’s international experience across the full spectrum of banking risks will help us maintain the stability and trust our customers, partners and investors expect, while we pursue our growth ambitions in all three Baltic countries.”
Erkka Näsäkkälä: “Citadele is a Baltic bank with a clear strategy and strong ambitions for growth, and that is what makes this role particularly exciting for me. Having experienced the financial crisis in the Baltics earlier in my career, I know how important it is to pair ambition with structured and disciplined risk management. I look forward to building on the strong foundation already in place and bringing my international experience to support Citadele’s sustainable growth across all three Baltic markets.”
The appointment of the Chief Risk Officer and member of the Management Board is subject to the required corporate and regulatory approvals. Until these are received, Erkka Näsäkkälä will support Citadele’s Risk function in an advisory capacity.
About Citadele Group
Citadele’s mission is to modernise the financial sector by offering a range of next-generation financial technology-based services alongside traditional banking products, serving both private individuals and entrepreneurs across the Baltics. Citadele holds a long-term deposit rating of A3 and a senior unsecured debt rating of Baa2, assigned by Moody’s on 21 April 2026, with a stable outlook. In H1 2026, Citadele issued EUR 750 million in new loans, with the total loan portfolio reaching EUR 3.9 billion and deposits growing to EUR 4.3 billion. Citadele Bank is the Group’s parent company in Latvia, and its subsidiaries and branches operate in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.