2004-12-09
1. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania (BoL) allowed the AB Siauliu bankas to register an amendment to the Bank’s statute related with the increase of the Bank’s share capital of LTL 52,75 million to LTL 56 million, approved at the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting of the AB Siauliu bankas on 20 July this year.
The Bank pointed out that the aim of the decision to increase the Bank’s share capital taken in summer this year was to raise additional resources for expanding operation and enhancing the capital base. The Bank issued registered shares of LTL 3,250.000 at the nominal value of 1 litas per share, the price of the issue LTL 1.70, and the total value of the issue LTL 5,525 million.
The shares of the AB Siaulių bankas of the new issue have been acquired by 180 individuals and legal entities. According to the presented documents, not a single entity acquired shares of the size of 10 per cent or more of the Bank’s share capital and/or voting rights.
2. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania allowed the Central Credit Union of Lithuania to register amendments to its charter related with the registered office of the Central Credit Union, the rights granted by main share and the competence of the bodies of this union, and the procedure for their election and recall, approved at an extraordinary meeting of its members on October 24 this year.
The charter has been amended to achieve compliance with the Law on the Central Credit Union of Lithuania, the Law on Co-operative Societies (Co-operatives) and the Law on Financial Institutions, as well as with the Civil Code.
Among the aims of the operation of the Central Credit Union of Lithuania is ensuring the development and the financial stability of domestic credit unions. A Stabilisation Fund for restoring impaired solvency of credit unions - members of the Central Credit Union - has been formed, which includes funds paid in by the member credit unions and other assets.
The licence for the operation of the Central Credit Union was issued on 28 November 2002. Among its founders is the government. Currently the Central Credit Union has 52 credit unions.
3. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania did not object to the request from the AB Bank Snoras to withdraw the request submitted earlier with accompanying documents regarding the permission for registering amendments to the statute of the AB Bank Snoras related with the increase of the Bank’s share capital.
At the general shareholders’ meeting of the AB Bank Snoras on 30 March this year a decision was made to increase the Bank’s share capital by LTL 25 million to LTL 162,267,200.
The right to acquire the shares of the new issue was granted to one investor - the CSC Konversbank of the Russian Federation.
4. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania was presented the information about the preparation of domestic banks to implement the European Union (EU) directives amending Directive 2000/12 EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions and Directive 93/6/EEC on the capital adequacy of investment firms and credit institutions (i.e. new EU directives - CAD III).
Domestic banks have been obliged to carry out an analysis of the compliance of their information technologies with the XML/XBRL data exchange format used for the introduction of a common European Union system of reporting about the capital adequacy of banks, and to undertake necessary preparations for the implementation of parallel capital adequacy calculation. The common EU system of reporting about the capital adequacy of banks is to be introduced in supervisory authorities and banks by mid-2006 at the latest.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has already approved a new document “International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: a Revised Framework” regulating capital adequacy calculation, commonly known as Basel II; however, the appropriate European Union directives and the terms for their implementation have not been approved yet.
On November 15-17 this year, the Credit Institutions Supervision Department of the BoL arranged meetings with representatives of domestic commercial banks to discuss preparations for the implementation of the new EU directives.
The preliminary date to start using parallel capital adequacy calculation in accordance with both the now existing and the new Basel II requirements is mid-2005 until the term of the implementation of the EU directives.
Banks are going to apply some new methods for measuring credit and operating risks from 1 January 2007 (if, upon approval of the draft EU directives, no changes are introduced in the terms envisaged for their implementation). Banks plan using the borrower rating systems harmonised with the requirements of the directives starting 1 January 2005 and thereafter.
5. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania did not object that the citizen of the Republic of Belarus Andrej Gaj-Voronskij should head the representative office of the joint stock company Djem-Bank of Belarus under establishment in Lithuania. He had recently worked in the bank Djem-Bank.
The BoL received the request from the Djem-Bank for permission to establish a representative office in the capital city of Lithuania. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania will have to take a separate decision on this matter.
The Law on Banks stipulates that a representative office of a foreign bank is not entitled to providing financial services in the Republic of Lithuania.
The Minsk-based commercial bank Djem-Bank was registered with the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus in August 1991 (initially it operated under the name of Servisbank). At the beginning of this year the owners from Belarus held 19,65 per cent of the Bank’s share capital, those from Latvia 43,12 per cent, and those from Canada 37,23 per cent. Legal persons held 54 per cent and natural persons 46 per cent of the capital. The number of shareholders totalled 70, of which three were large shareholders (above 5 % of the authorized capital). According to the data for 1 January this year which has been announced by the Djem-Bank, the Bank’s own funds made up 27,895 billion Belarus roubles (LTL 16,3 million). At the end of the last year the Bank’s assets totalled 69,274 billion Belarus roubles (LTL 88,3 million).
6. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania approved the short balance sheet statistical statement form PFI-03 for credit and other institutions. It was established that the data of this document and of the interest rate statistical statement form PFI-02, approved on 24 December last year, must be submitted by the Central Credit Union, credit unions and other institutions, which are selected by the BoL in the statistical list of the monetary financial institutions of Lithuania.
The data of the two statistical statement forms PFI-02 and PFI-03 will have to be submitted from 1 April 2005, beginning with the March data of the next year. The statistical requirements of the European Central Bank (ECB) regulation on the loans and deposit interest rates of monetary financial institutions will thus be fully implemented.