Banks, Deposits, Financial Services, Latvia

"There are indications that Latvian financial institutions' competitiveness is improving in a new capacity - one of our commercial banks, which also serves a substantial share of foreign customers, has already renewed direct correspondent relations with a U.S. commercial bank for transactions in U.S. dollars," said the FCMC, adding that this was an important development in harmonizing Latvian financial sector's operations with new compliance standards.

Resident deposits prevailed this year in Latvia, amounting to 61% of all deposits by end-September, said the commission. "Such a proportion of resident and non-resident deposits is not quite usual for Latvian banking sector," added FCMC.

One of the most important developments in the banking sector this year was the introduction of different standards, including, in particular, of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for the prevention of money laundering.

According to the FCMC Chairman Peteris Putnins, the commission's main task in the future will be to balance out banks' development, new ideas, and regulatory framework.

"We are entering a new phase now. A lot has been achieved, especially by commercial banks as the quality of banks' transactions and their customer base has improved," said Putnins. "Our main task as the industry's watchdog will be to ensure a balance between development, new ideas, and the regulatory framework, so that our supervision contribute to the development of innovative, effective and, of course, safe services for banks' customers."