2015-03-04
From 1 January of this year until 1 March, commercial banks, Lithuania Post, the Bank of Lithuania and some credit unions exchanged, free of charge, litas cash in the value of 2.8 billion (EUR 0.81 billion) and performed more than 1.2 million exchange operations. When exchange will end at the post offices and credit unions, litas will be exchanged into euro at commercial banks and the Bank of Lithuania.
“The most active stage of currency exchange is now over. We can state that it took place smoothly and a large part of the litas in circulation was exchanged. During the whole process, a big load was placed on the banks, but Lithuania Post made a significant contribution in the exchange of litas, playing an important role in more remote territories. At exchange locations safety was efficiently ensured by the police,” noted Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.
According to him, currently the activity of the residents in exchanging currency is significantly smaller than in the first days of January, when LTL 2 billion (EUR 0.58 billion) was exchanged over 15 days.
Up until and including 1 March, at 343 commercial bank branches, 638.1 thousand operations were performed, during which LTL 1.9 billion (EUR 0.55 billion) was exchanged. The average amount of exchange operations at bank branches — almost LTL 3,000 (EUR 868). Litas exchange using ATMs that deposited cash was also popular. After the euro adoption, LTL 219.36 million (EUR 63.53 million) was deposited into the ATMs of the two largest banks.
At 330 branches of Lithuania Post, over two months, 560 thousand, or almost half, of all litas exchange operations were performed. Here, LTL 829 million was exchanged, or slightly more than EUR 240 million.
“In January we exchanged LTL 713 million at post offices, while in February and on the first day of March — LTL 116 million. Customer flows show the large difference between January and February — in January we received nearly half a million clients, while in February the number of clients who wanted to exchange currency barely reached 100 thousand,” says Lina Minderienė, General Director of Lithuania Post.
According to L. Minderienė, in January the average amount exchanged at post offices was LTL 1.5 thousand (EUR 0.44 thousand); in February it slightly decreased and amounted to around LTL 1 thousand (EUR 0.29 thousand). The most currency was exchanged at post offices in in Kaunas, Panevežys, Alytus, Jonava and Utena.
At its three cash offices in Vilnius and Kaunas, the Bank of Lithuania, from the euro adoption until 1 March, exchanged 56.4 million in litas cash into euro, performed over 20 thousand such currency exchange operations.
Over two months, 11 credit unions exchanged LTL 9.3 million (EUR 2.69 million).
Cash exchange was facilitated by the fact that with residents more often choosing electronic payment instruments, by depositing cash in accounts, from the beginning of last year until 31 December litas in circulation decreased by half.
On 1 March, the supply of cash issued by the Bank of Lithuania amounted to slightly more than EUR 1.8 billion. Of this amount, almost EUR 1.54 billion comprised euro issued into circulation by the Bank of Lithuania. The value of litas that haven't been exchanged yet amounted to EUR 0.27 billion (about LTL 923 million).
The Bank of Lithuania will exchange the litas into the euro free of charge for an unlimited period of time.
Commercial banks will exchange litas into euro free of charge for 6 months following the date of the adoption of the euro (until 30 June 2015). For another half year, i.e. until 31 December 2015, banknotes will be exchanged into euro free of charge by some branches of commercial banks (all regional centres and some other cities).