Banks, Education and Science, Financial Services, Latvia, Loan

Swedbank spokesman Janis Krops explained that the conclusion of new study and student loan agreements has been suspended because, due to strong demand from the students, the government funding available to the loan program this year has been exhausted already. The suspension will not affect the students that have already signed loan agreements with the bank.

The spokesman indicated that Swedbank is ready to resume lending to students as soon as the necessary funding becomes available again. According to current estimates, the Education and Science Ministry has to urgently provide around EUR 600,00 to EUR 700,000 to meet this year's demand for study and student loans.

The bank's representatives noted that new terms for study and student loans involving a guarantee from Development Finance Institution Altum (Altum) came into effect at the beginning of this academic year, drawing strong interest from students, which exceeded statistics-based forecasts.

In the few months since Swedbank started issuing study and student loans with Altum guarantees, the number of new loan agreements exceeded the figure for the full 2019 by 63%. So far this academic year, Swedbank has extended 2,390 study and student loans, or 920 loans more than in 2019.