Banks, Financial Services, Latvia, Society

Respondents in the poll, which was conducted in August 2018, were asked if Latvian commercial banks could be trusted.

More than half of respondents, or 53%, disagreed with the opinion that the Latvian commercial banks can be trusted. Compared to last year, the share of such respondents has grown by eight percentage points.

The data of SKDS surveys shows that each crisis in the banking sector causes public trust in the Latvian commercial banks to decrease. After the collapse of Parex Bank in late 2018 the percentage of people distrusting commercial banks nearly doubled, from 33% to 55%. After the shutdown of Latvijas Krajbanka the number of respondents distrusting commercial banks rose by 10 percentage points over year to 58%.

Meanwhile, 37% of respondents in the latest SKDS survey said they still trusted commercial banks, down percentage points from last year. One in ten respondents could not give a definitive answer.

SKDS polled around 1,000 people in the survey.