Company briefs - 2010-08-19

  • 2010-08-18

Nordic and Baltic policy makers have signed an agreement designed to improve financial market stability in the region and to prevent financial crises, reports Bloomberg. The accord will allow Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden to improve cooperation in areas such as routine information sharing. Nordic lenders, which own most of the banking industry in the Baltic region, suffered losses last year as a credit boom in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania turned to bust. “The agreement enhances preparedness to handle cross-border financial stability concerns in the financially integrated Nordic-Baltic region,” said the Finnish government.

The joint-stock computer hardware and software wholesale company Elko group posted 1.2 million lats (1.7 million euros) in profit after tax in the first half of this year, compared with 16.9 million lats in losses in the corresponding period of the previous year, reports Nozare.lv. The company’s net turnover in the first six months was 156.8 million lats, up from 137.7 million lats in the same period of the previous year. Elko group is one of the largest IT product distributors in the Baltics, Eastern and Central Europe; the company’s main business activity and key markets are outside Latvia. In terms of turnover, Elko group is the largest company in Latvia.

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Finland issued a license to operate to LHV Bank, reports National Broadcasting. Now the bank will be able to start providing cross-border services in Finland. In June, the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority made the same decision. Thus far, LHV Bank has provided cross-border services in Latvia and in Lithuania, where it maintains savings deposits and provides investment services. “In Finland we will start off with two principal banking products – savings and loans,” stated CEO Erki Kilu. He notes that the savings deposit market in Finland is 10 times bigger than that in Estonia, and that makes the market very attractive for the bank.