Baltic States – CIS, Banks, Financial Services, Latvia, Lithuania

Five years of operations in Lithuania convinced the bank that the market was similar to Latvia’s hence the bank wanted to expand, Goca Tutberidze, the bank’s supervisory board chairman, told the daily.

The bank planned to provide the full range of services but would focus on businesses operating in the CIS countries, he said.

“You have quite a few strong Scandinavian banks but if, for example, a company wants to implement projects in the CIS countries, it’s not that simple to do. Banks are rather skeptical. Our bank, meanwhile, has 20 years of experience in work with such markets as Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan. We’ve financed a great many of companies involved in imports or exports of goods and we can be flexible,” Tutberidze said.