Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest banks, has informed German and Lithuanian supervisory authorities of its plans to operate in Lithuania, Gediminas Simkus, board chairman of the central Bank of Lithuania, said on Tuesday.
Poland’s Pekao has already done the same, Simkus said, adding that neither bank requires a license to operate in Lithuania as they already operate in the EU, and they only need a strategy to launch their operations in the country.
“They need to map out their strategy and start operations, because they have notified their supervisory authority and obtained the authorization, and they have notified the Bank of Lithuania,” Simkus told reporters.
“The same applies to Pekao Bank. This is basically part of their market entry strategy – when, how and to what extent. These are business decisions that the businesses themselves should comment on,” the governor said.
“They don’t need a license (…), because (Commerzbank) is a bank based in the European Union,” he added.
Simkus underlined that “specific business decisions and approaches have to be commented on by the banks themselves”.
Moreover, Simkus pointed out foreign banks can be established in Lithuania in various forms and their intentions are serious.
It was reported last week that Commerzbank would announce its plans in Lithuania later this year. Economy and Innovation Minister Ausrine Armonaite, who met with the bank’s delegation, told BNS that Commerzbank’s intentions in Lithuania were serious.
Commerzbank earlier told BNS that Lithuania was “a dynamic and innovative player on the European and global stage”.
The vz.lt business news website reported in mid-July about plans by The Bank of Taiwan, the largest Taiwanese bank, to set up a representative office in Lithuania. The news emerged after the island’s Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan approved the state-owned bank’s application to set up in Lithuania.
In January, Simkus confirmed to the 15min.lt news website the unofficial information reported by BNS earlier that Pekao, one of the largest Polish banks, was also considering establishing a branch in Lithuania.
Earlier, PKO, Poland’s largest bank, also officially confirmed to BNS it was planning to start operations in Lithuania without establishing a branch there.
Source: BNS
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