“Polish banks in their strategies list Lithuania as a priority market,” Skaistė said in an interview to the radio station Žinių radijas on Thursday.
She noted that staff of the Ministry of Finance had met with representatives of Polish banks and “certain decisions” are expected in the years ahead.
According to the finance minister, Polish banks are first of all interested in opportunities of working with business clients. She also said that the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Lithuania are actively promoting Lithuania to foreign investors highlighting the attractiveness of the local market.
In December, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania Gediminas Šimkus and member of the Board Simonas Krėpšta met with the delegation of the Polish commercial bank Pekao.
Last year, meetings with German banks took place as well.
Both the governor of the central bank and the finance minister argue that foreign investors are interested in entering the Lithuanian market and it is just a matter of time when this would happen.
Skaistė added Thursday that Lithuania’s banking sector is highly concentrated but profitable. According to her, although the initial cost of entering the Lithuanian market is rather substantial, yet the return on investment is also high.
Currently there are 18 participants in the Lithuanian banking sector: 13 have banking licences and 5 operate as branches of foreign banks. Swedbank, SEB and Luminor have the largest market share.
