Analytics, Baltic, Financial Services, Loan

Other expenses occurring during the credit repayment period are equally important. This, according to Luminor, shows a positive trend that credit repayment possibilities are assessed carefully by residents in the Baltic countries. 

Consumer loans in all three countries are taken more frequently by men, with men accounting for 54% of the respondents who had taken a consumer loan in the last two years. The respective ratio was 54% in Estonia, 58% in Lithuania and 51% in Latvia.  

Women in the Baltic countries find the possibility to obtain credit remotely and short approval periods more important than men do. Nearly 50 % of women in the three countries considered the possibility to obtain credit remotely to be very important, compared with one-third of men who were of the same opinion. The ratios for men were 30% for Latvia, 28% for Lithuania and 33% for Estonia.

"We carefully follow the habits of our customers, and the fact that remote services are becoming more popular is apparent not only in the area of crediting. More than 85% of Luminor customers in the Baltic states use remote channels for their day-to-day financial services on a daily basis," said Kristjan Jasinski, lending expert at Luminor.

"Overall, the number of male and female internet users in Estonia is equal, therefore it is interesting that the survey revealed  differences between genders -- it is apparent that women are more interested in using remote services than men. However, our experience shows that the decision-makers are mostly men," Jasinski said.

Lower total costs during the credit repayment period, including administrative expenses and fees, were named as very important by 61% of respondents in Lithuania, 49% in Latvia and 52% in Estonia. Low annual interest rates were seen as equally important, being mentioned by 62% of respondents in Lithuania, 49% in Latvia and 48% in Estonia.

For respondents in Latvia, the third most important aspect was the possibility to deal with everything remotely, with 41% naming this option as very important, whereas in Lithuania the third most important aspect was short approval periods, named as very important by 40 % of respondents. 41% of respondents in Estonia named both remote credit options and the reputation of a bank as a trustworthy creditor as very important factors.

In the survey conducted in collaboration with market research agency Norstat, 3,026 respondents in the three countries were interviewed in June 2019.