Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Lithuania

"We would be happy to further engage, indeed, in other banks in these countries; we would like to support the activities in the energy and energy efficiency field," EBRD President Thomas Mirow told a press conference in Vilnius on Friday after meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius.

The organization plans to increase its investment in Lithuania's banking and energy industries by as much as EUR 100 million this year. The EBRD now holds a 16 percent stake in Lithuanian bank Siauliu Bankas. "We speak about equity where needed, but we also speak about subordinated loans, we speak about credit lines for small and medium-sized enterprises," Mirow said.

The development bank was set up in 1991 to help Europe's former communist nations evolve into free-market economies. It teamed up in February with the World Bank and the European Investment Bank to provide up to EUR 24.5 billion over two years in loans and investment to crisis-stricken Eastern Europe.