2011-07-27
Payment institution licences to "Virtualių paslaugų operatorius" and "Omnitel"
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania decided to issue another two payment institution licenses. So far a total of 13 undertakings have been issued licenses for provision of payment services.
UAB "Virtualių paslaugų operatorius" (Vilnius) will receive a payment institution license allowing "money remittances", a payment service established in Article 5(6) of the Law on Payments of the Republic of Lithuania . UAB "Omnitel" will receive a payment institution license for restricted activities, which allows providing services ("execution of payment transactions where the consent of the payer to execute a payment transaction is given by means of any telecommunication, digital or IT device and the payment is made to the telecommunication, IT system or network operator, acting only as an intermediary between the payment service user and the supplier of the goods or services") specified in Article 5(7) of the Law on Payments.
UAB "Virtualių paslaugų operatorius" provides payment (money remittances) service via two intermediaries, namely UAB "Lietuvos spaudos Vilniaus agentūra" and UAB "Vaskota". At the present time, fees from natural and legal entities are collected at retail outlets owned by UAB "Lietuvos spauda Vilniaus agentūra" (by 274 kiosks and 29 outlets of R-Kiosk retail network in Lithuania’s major cities, as well as 30 newspaper kiosks which belong to UAB "Vaskota"). As informed by UAB "Virtualių paslaugų operatorius", upon the receipt of the payment institution license it would provide the said service via two intermediaries specified above after they are included into the public list of payment institutions, while later on the service would be provided directly.
When providing the payment service, UAB "Omnitel" will act in the payment service market as an intermediary that offers its customers a possibility to order certain services available from service providers and give their agreement to execute a payment transaction by dialing a short number, sending a SMS text message to that number or connecting to it via an online browser on their mobile phone. According to UAB "Omnitel", 65,000 of its customers use the payment service it offers. They can pay via UAB "Omnitel" for services received from 18 various service providers.
Failure to comply with requirements when appointing an institution head
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania pointed out to UAB "Mokėjimo terminalų sistemos" its failure to comply with established requirements when appointing the head of the payment institution. Laimonas Žmuidzinavičius was appointed the director of this institution without sending to the Bank of Lithuania a prior notice of intended replacement of the institution’s head as stipulated by laws.
The Law on Payment Institutions contains a provision according to which a payment institution must give a notice to the supervisory institution on envisaged changes in the management of the payment institution and also supply information specified by the supervisory institution required to evaluate whether the management members meet requirements set forth by the law. The newly elected (appointed) members of the management of the payment institution may take office solely if the supervisory institution does not oppose the nomination. The supervisory institution shall have the right to oppose the nomination if the nominee does not meet established requirements.
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania was not against appointing Laimonas Žmuidzinavičius the director of "Mokėjimo terminalų sistemos", as he met the requirements set forth in the Law on Payment Systems.
Information on operations of credit institutions
The Credit Institutions Supervision Department of the Bank of Lithuania presented information on operations of credit institutions and department activities in the second quarter of 2011. The review of this activity is available on the website of the Bank of Lithuania.
Šiaulių bankas receives permission to increase share capital
The Board of the Bank of Lithuania gave permission to Šiaulių bankas to register amendments to its Articles of Association in relation to the LTL 30 million increase of the bank’s authorised capital to LTL 234,857,533, as approved by the general meeting of the bank‘s shareholders on 18 November 2010.
Currently, the Articles of Association of Šiaulių bankas, included in the Register of Legal Entities shows the bank’s authorised capital to be of LTL 204,857,533.
Šiaulių bankas told the Bank of Lithuania it was to boost its authorised capital to offer to the bank’s shareholders for whom the general meeting of the shareholders on 18 May 2010 (during the previous increase of the authorised capital) cancelled the priority right to acquire shares of that time share issue a possibility to acquire shares and thus restore the reduced amount of the authorised capital held by them. Also, the bank seeks to strengthen the capital base and increase the volume of its banking services. According to the bank, the authorised capital increase will have positive effect on its compliance with prudential requirements and operational results.
A fine for a credit union
After having discussed the findings of the inspection of "Sveikatos kreditas" (Gargždai) credit union, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania gave strict evaluation to the violations of legal acts and operational deficiencies discovered during the inspection. As a result, the credit union was imposed a fine of 0.1 per cent of its total annual earnings in 2010. The Board also set certain capital requirements.
The decision was made taking into account some previous enforcement measures imposed on "Sveikatos kreditas" by the Bank of Lithuania for violation of legal acts.
The credit union was instructed to remove legal violations and drawbacks in its operations by 30 September 2011 and notify the Bank of Lithuania thereof.
Approves appointment of new management member
"Laikinosios sostinės kreditas" credit union (Kaunas) notified the Bank of Lithuania of the decision taken by the credit union‘s board to appoint Živilė Dargenė the head of the credit union‘s administration. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania did not object to this appointment.
Sails to feature on coin to commemorate Olympic Games in London
The 50 litas silver collector (commemorative) coin dedicated to the 30th Olympic Games in London, to be issued in circulation in the fourth quarter this year will feature stylized sails on both sides and the edge of the coin. The sailing sport was given a priority when creating the graphic design of the coin taking into account the suggestion by the Lithuanian National Olympics Committee.
Ten artists took part in an open competition held to choose the best graphic design for this coin. As none of the submitted projects turned to be good enough, another open competition was organised. Eight artists presented their works of which three were chosen. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania ruled out the first place to go to Rūta Čigriejūtė’s project with Vytautas Narutis and Rūta Ničajienė to be announced the winners of the second and the third place.
Graphic designs for the 50 litas collector (commemorative) coin dedicated to the 30th Olympic Games in London by Rūta Čigriejūtė have been approved. Also, the Board approved the proposal to have the word "Wind" engraved three times on the edge of the coin.