The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has passed amendments mandating the country’s largest banks to provide in-person customer service and to maintain a network of ATMs outside big cities as of 2026, LSM reported. The new rules will apply to Swedbank, SEB, Citadele, and Luminor. Currently, the big banks have no permanent customer service points in…
Representatives from Lithuania’s five largest commercial banks — Citadele, Luminor, OP Corporate Bank, SEB Bank, and Swedbank — met with Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte to express dissatisfaction with the extension of the windfall tax on bank profits, BNS reports. They voiced concerns over the unpredictability of the investment environment and the lack of cooperation between…
Nearly half (45%) of Estonians have seen their financial situation worsen in the past year, according to a Norstat poll for SEB in December 2023, BNS reports. Consumers are therefore cutting back on expenses, including by taking advantage of discounts (62%), planning purchases more carefully (49%), and eating out less often (45%). Other cost-saving measures…
Estonia’s second-largest commercial bank, SEB Pank, posted a net profit of EUR 231.7mn in 2023, which was a double increase from EUR 115.9mn in 2022, ERR reports. SEB’s operating income amounted to EUR 356mn (EUR 206.9mn) and operating expenses to EUR 78.4mn (EUR 69.1mn). CEO Allan Parik attributed the high profit to the rapid rise…
Commercial banks and other credit institutions in Lithuania have paid EUR 56mn in temporary solidarity tax for the second quarter of 2023, according to the Finance Ministry’s preliminary data, BNS reports. Altogether 18 credit institutions made the first quarterly advance payment by the deadline of 31 August 2023. Swedbank paid EUR 25mn, followed by SEB…
Estonia’s GDP will decline by 1.8% in 2023 and grow by 1.5% in 2024, according to SEB Bank’s latest forecast, ERR reports. The average unemployment rate will reach 6.5% in 2023 and 6.9% in 2024, the bank projects. Mihkel Nestor, chief economist at SEB, noted that the outlook for the Estonian economy has deteriorated in…
Latvian data centre operator DEAC and Lithuania’s Data Logistics Center (DLC) have obtained a ten-year loan of EUR 30mn from SEB Bank, The Baltic Times reports. The companies will use the funds to further expand their telecommunication infrastructure. DEAC will build a third data centre in Riga, while DLC will expand its data centres in…
The total profit of banks operating in Estonia in the first half of 2023 was almost as high as in the whole of 2022, ERR reports. Swedbank’s net profit amounted to EUR 214mn in six months, which was EUR 148mn from a year earlier. In 2022, Swedbank’s annual net profit stood at EUR 224mn. SEB…
The continuing rise in prices in Estonia is driven by the increase in food prices, ERR reports. In June 2023, the growth of prices slowed down to 8.9% compared to the same month last year, according to preliminary data from Statistics Estonia. Compared to May 2023, prices went up by 0.8%, however. In both annual…