Commercial banks operating in Lithuania have no plans to pull out of the country, Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said on Monday while commenting on proposed tax changes currently under discussion within the ruling coalition and their possible impact on the investment environment.
Speaking about plans by Sweden’s SEB to merge its three Baltic banks into a single entity headquartered in Tallinn, Paluckas said that this “story isn’t over” yet.
“I’ve met with the heads of all the banks operating in Lithuania, and I can say that none of them are planning to leave,” the prime minister said on an LRT TV programme on Monday.
“As for SEB, that story isn’t over. After the decision was made, it still needs two years to be implemented, but we’ve got both the stick and the carrot. So we’re going to talk more about this,” he added.
Paluckas met last Tuesday with representatives of commercial banks operating in Lithuania to discuss how to reduce the bureaucratic burden on them and encourage banks to contribute to defence funding.
In December, SEB announced that the consolidated legal entity would be domiciled in Estonia, with branches in Latvia and Lithuania.
The bank said in a press release that the decision aims “to simplify corporate governance”, adding that customers would not be affected by the changes because “SEB’s banking operations will continue as usual in all three Baltic countries”.
“Subject to regulatory approvals, including permissions from local financial supervisory authorities and the ECB, the new legal structure is expected to be operational by the beginning of 2027,” it said.
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