Rietumu Banka Co-Founder Esterkin: Latvia Must Regain Its Lost Dynamism
Rietumu Banka co-founder Leonids Esterkin reflects in an interview on his journey from Ukraine to Riga and argues Latvia has fallen economically behind Estonia and Lithuania despite having better starting conditions.
Leonids Esterkin, who has lived in Latvia for more than fifty years and is one of the country's best-known banking figures, shared a personal account of his life and views on the country in a recent interview. He arrived in Riga during the Soviet era from Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine to study, and says that unlike elsewhere, he never experienced ethnic hostility in the city. There he enrolled at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, worked as an engineer, earned extra income repairing furniture, and started a family.
From Studies to Founding a Bank
In the early 1990s, riding the wave of entrepreneurial energy created by newly restored independence, Esterkin and like-minded partners founded Rietumu Banka in the premises of a former kindergarten. Over the decades the bank weathered multiple crises, which Esterkin says it survived through constant adaptation and innovation — the same qualities, he notes, that have driven Latvia's economy as a whole. While his role at the bank has evolved, with more responsibility now resting with its board, he says he intends to keep working there.
Art Collection and Riga's Standing
Esterkin has built one of the largest private art collections in Latvia, arguing that Latvian painting is internationally underappreciated despite being on par with Western European art. He compares Riga to European cities such as Vienna or Hamburg, saying Riga possesses a unique dynamic European character that neither Vilnius nor Tallinn share.
Criticism of the Current Situation
Still, Esterkin acknowledges that Riga and Latvia have lost part of that dynamism — population is shrinking, new development projects are scarce, ports are underused and the railway sector is struggling. He expresses concern that Latvia has fallen behind Estonia and Lithuania economically despite once having better starting conditions. As solutions, he points to the need for political stability and predictability, the courage to pursue bold and sometimes controversial projects, and a rebalancing between those who create economic value and the oversight bodies that merely monitor it. Despite his criticism, he says he remains confident Latvia can reverse these trends.
