About Us
Each day, a lot of people directly and indirectly come in contact with the Bank of Lithuania, the central bank of the Republic of Lithuania, by holding in their hands the litas, the national currency issued by the Bank, and using it to pay for goods and services.
The role of the Bank of Lithuania is very important for the country’s economy and financial system, therefore the Bank of Lithuania is included among the most important state institutions in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania.
Our mission: ensuring sustainability and integrity of the state’s monetary, credit and payment systems and their stable, reliable and efficient functioning, thus creating favourable conditions for the optimal development of the national economy.
Objective: The Bank of Lithuania is the central bank of the Republic of Lithuania. Its principal objective is to maintain price stability. In seeking its principal objective, the Bank of Lithuania is independent from the Government of the Republic of Lithuania or other institutions of the state.
Video about the Bank of Lithuania
The majority of non-cash settlements (both in litas and in euro) are made via the central bank’s payment systems. A significant number of people use services of commercial banks and credit unions, whereas the Bank of Lithuania performs supervision of these credit institutions by issuing licences for their operation, monitoring their financial situation and operational risks, taking measures for these risks to be at an acceptable level and preparing and publishing the banking sector reviews.
The Bank of Lithuania formulates and implements monetary policy, determines the litas exchange rate regulation system and sets the official exchange rate of the litas. Earlier the litas was pegged to the US dollar at the fixed exchange rate, whereas now it is pegged to the euro. The Bank of Lithuania has already maintained the stable exchange rate of the litas against the anchor currency for more than 15 years.
Foreign reserves managed and used by the Bank of Lithuania represent a significant financial tool for ensuring litas stability. By investing these reserves, the Bank of Lithuania earns the largest share of its income.
The bank of Lithuania monitors and analyses the country’s economy, forecasts its potential developments and performs the financial system stability assessment. This is important for enterprises in the planning and expansion of their activities, and for the population in taking borrowing and investment decisions.
The Bank’s objectives and tasks, as well as all of its functions are set in the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Bank of Lithuania.
In implementing the primary objective, the Bank of Lithuania performs the following functions:
- issuing the currency of the Republic of Lithuania;
- formulating and implementing monetary policy;
- determining the litas exchange rate regulation system and announcing the official exchange rate of the litas;
- managing, using and disposing of foreign reserves of the Bank of Lithuania;
- acting as a State Treasury agent;
- issuing and revoking licenses of credit institutions of the Republic of Lithuania and permissions for the establishment and operation of branches and representative offices of credit institutions of foreign states, supervising their activities and establishing the principles and procedures for financial accounting and reporting;
- developing and managing an inter-bank funds tranfer system and establishing the requirements for the participants of the inter-bank funds transfer system;
- collecting monetary, banking and balance of payments statistics, as well as data on Lithuanian financial and related statistics, implementing standards on the collection, reporting and dissemination of such statistics and compiling the balance of payments of the Republic of Lithuania;
-establish principles and procedures for financial accounting and reporting of credit institutions of the Republic of Lithuania and branches of credit institutions of foreign states operating in the Republic of Lithuania;
-encourage stable and efficient operation of payment and securities settlement systems.
Bank of Lithuania (Lietuvos bankas)
| Address | Gedimino ave. 6, LT-01103 Vilnius | |
| Swift | LIAB LT 2X | |
| Code of the Bank of Lithuania | 10100 | |
| Identification code | 188607684 | |
| VAT number | LT886076811 |
