Banks, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Lithuania

Andrius Kubilius.

On Friday, Prime Minister of Lithuania Andrius Kubilius and Finance Minister Ingrida Simonyte met with Annika Falkengren, president of Sweden's SEB bank, Martin Johansson, head of SEB's Baltic operations, and Audrius Ziugzda, chairman of the board of the SEB bank, informs ELTA/LETA.

At her first meeting with Prime Minister Kubilius, the president of the SEB bank reiterated the bank's obligations to seek long-term goals in the Baltic States and reminded Kubilius of the achievements made by the SEB bank in Lithuania over the past 11 years of activities in the country. Falkengren assured the prime minister that the SEB bank had experience to overcome the detrimental consequences of overvaluing real estate as Sweden had faced a similar crisis a few decades ago.

The prime minister expressed his concern over the decreasing credit portfolios of the bank as Lithuania urgently needed new credit sources for the recovery of healthy economic activities.

The heads of the SEB bank told Prime Minister Kubilius that the bank lent less at the moment because the number of clients who met the requirements of credit policy.

The prime minister said once and again that the Lithuanian Government aimed to ensure that the branches of foreign banks would retain funds in the country by lending both to the public and private sectors.