Survey: Financial market participants positively assess transparency of Bank of Lithuania activities

‘Our institution is the first and probably the only one in the public sector to have conducted such a survey. Its results have lived up to our expectations: most of respondents positively assessed the activities of our institution and recognised them as being transparent, and Bank of Lithuania employees as being able to flawlessly reconcile public and private interests,’ said Aidenas Karpus, Director of the Security Department of the Bank of Lithuania. 

The opinion that the activities of the Bank of Lithuania are transparent was reported by 86 per cent of the surveyed. During the survey financial market participants reported more of positive assessments: 90 per cent of respondents stated the opinion that Bank of Lithuania legal acts on carrying out the supervision of financial market participants are clear and easy to understand.

The employees of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania do not hinder and delay decision-making, seeking to benefit themselves or their close ones, claim 98 per cent of the surveyed; 99.7 per cent of respondents reported that they were not aware of cases when employees of the Supervision Service would have sought for themselves better-than-market-average service conditions from the market participants they supervise; 100 per cent of the surveyed responded that such conditions had not been provided; 67 per cent of representatives of enterprises that were subject to enforcement measures reported that the motives and legal basis for the application of the enforcement measures were clear for them; 30 per cent were unable to say exactly, and for a mere 3 per cent, the motives were unclear.   

Survey participants submitted proposals to improve the legal acts regulating financial market supervision and to present detailed recommendations on their implementation, in order to prevent different interpretations. The Bank of Lithuania has additionally informed financial market participants that the Bank’s employees, observing this institution’s ethical principles, cannot personally benefit from supervised market participants.  

The Bank of Lithuania ordered this survey with the aim to improve financial market supervision conducted by it and to enhance employees’ capability to properly reconcile public and private interests. The survey was conducted by the public opinion company Baltijos tyrimai. All supervised banks, major foreign bank branches, all credit unions, and all insurers engaged in insurance activity as well as consumer credit companies, whose activities were inspected during the reference period, were invited to take part in the survey. The survey’s questions were answered by 292 respondents.  

Accountability and transparency