RIGA - Mortgage loans issued by Latvia's banks increased 92 percent, or 1.3 billion lats, to 2.7 billion lats (3.9 billion euros) over the 11 months of the year to the end of November, the Association of Latvia's Commercial Banks reported.
Hansabanka was the leader among Latvian banks with a 32.6 percent share in the mortgage-lending market at the end of November. Mortgage loans issued by the bank totaled 888.1 million lats, an 86.5 percent increase from the end of 2004.
SEB Latvijas Unibanka issued 411 million lats in mortgage loans by the end of November, an 88.8 percent rise from the end of last year. Mortgage loans issued by Nord/LB Latvija by the end of November amounted to 319.1 million lats, which is 2.9 times more than the end of 2004.
The aggregate market share of the three leading banks reached 58.8 percent by the beginning of December.
