Banks, Financial Services, Latvia

Non-resident deposits dropped by 26.3% or EUR 3.3 bln to EUR 9.2 bln at the end of 2016.

As a result, the share of resident deposits in total deposits increased from 46.4% to 57.2% at the end of last year.

The total amount of bank deposits fell by 8% during 2016 from EUR 23.26 bln in December 2015 to EUR 21.4 bln in late 2016.

Non-resident deposits decreased because of tightening of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements to Latvian banks and poor economic growth in the countries of origin of non-resident customers, for example, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, said Peters Putnins, the head of the Finance and Capital Market Commission.

According to the financial regulator, the number of active non-resident customers decreased by 17.2% or 16,900 last year. Presumably, higher-risk customers withdrew from the Latvian banking system which is a positive development, said Ludmila Vojevoda, a council member of the Finance and Capital Market Commission, during a news conference today.

Deposits by resident households grew by EUR 481 mln or 8.9% last year, deposits by resident private non-financial enterprises increased by EUR 357 mln or 10.5% and the government deposits rose by EUR 577 mln or 111% while deposits by resident fi