TALLINN - One German, one Austrian and two British banks have expressed the wish to provide cross-border banking services in Estonia, the finance authority announced last week.
The applications arrived from Eurohypo AG from Germany, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich Aktiengesellschaft from Austria, HSBC Bank Plc and Rathbone Investment Management Limited from Great Britain," the financial supervisory authority informed on June 4.
As of May 1, it is possible for financial institutions of any EU country to provide insurance services in all member countries. Interested parties do not have to apply to the financial supervisory body or a separate operating license for that purpose.
However, according to the Estonian supervisory authority, any company wishing to provide cross-border services must inform the authority of its own country, which forwards respective information to the supervisory authority in the target country.
To provide cross-border services, financial institutions of EU member countries may either open an office in Estonia or provide the services directly from their countries of location.
Meanwhile, the Lithuanian branch of Nordea Bank, a member of the financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic countries, announced that it would take over the Lithuanian branch of Poland's Kredyt Bank.
Details of the deal, which should be completed by the end of the summer, were not disclosed, though it will leave Nordea Bank Lietuva with customer-service centers in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda and Panevezys.
Kredyt Bank announced the sale of its Lithuanian operations last July, but most commercial banks seemed unimpressed by the bank's fixed assets, including its buildings.
According to data from the Central Bank of Lithuania, Nordea Bank Lietuva trimmed its losses to 941,000 litas (272,000 euros) in 2003.
