National austerity measures taken by OECD member governments as a result of the financial crisis have sparked voter anger at the way big international companies shift profits around the world to cut their tax bills.

Latvia and Jersey signed a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) at the Latvian Embassy in London. The agreement was signed by the Assistant Chief Minister with responsibility for External Relations, Senator Sir Philip Bailhache, and the Latvian Ambassador, His Excellency Eduards Stiprais.

The results of Q1 allow expecting achievement of the objectives set for 2013. All the bank’s major performance indicators remain high, including capital adequacy and liquidity ratios.

Continuing its bond issue programme, ABLV Bank, AS will perform four new bond issues. The issues will be performed under the Third Bond Offer Programme, and the bonds will be admitted to the regulated market – NASDAQ OMX Riga list of debt securities.

Real estate development company Pillar, a part of ABLV Group, has completed and put into commission one of the most exclusive real estate projects in Riga – Elizabetes Park House. The building is located in Riga centre, at Elizabetes 21a.

On 9 May 2013, the Council of the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) approved registration of the Base Prospectus of ABLV Bank, AS, Third Bond Offer Programme, allowing the bank to perform public offering of debt securities amounting to LVL 200 000 000 or equivalent amount in EUR or USD.

The first four months of 2013 have been successful for open-end mutual funds managed by ABLV Asset Management, IPAS, and as at the end of April this year the total value of their assets exceeded EUR 75 million. Currently, 6 mutual funds are available to our customers, including 4 bond funds and 2 stock funds.

On 7^th of May, 2013 coupons under ABLV FXD EUR 051114 (ISIN LV0000801041) and ABLV FXD USD 061114 (LV0000801058) bonds were paid out according to the following parameters:

In April, after things in Cyprus have calmed down, major global stock markets resumed living their own lives, and dynamics of stock indexes of particular countries were mostly determined by internal factors.

In its 2011 tax report, released on 25 April 2013, Europe's statistics agency identified Denmark as having the highest tax burden in the European Union, with income equivalent to 47.7 percent of the country's annual output.