Company briefs - 2011-03-03

This past January, the Latvian banking sector finally returned to profit after posting losses the past two years, the Financial and Capital Market Commission’s representative Anna Dravniece said, reports Nozare.lv. The banking sector posted a 10.9 million lats (15.5 million euros) profit in January. The last time the banking sector operated with a profit was in January of 2009. In January of last year, the Latvian banking sector posted 36.1 million lats in losses. This past January, 15 Latvian banks and five foreign bank branches operated with profit. Latvian banking sector total losses in 2010 amounted to 360.6 million lats, 53.4 percent less than in 2009, when the banking sector lost 773.4 million lats.

Lithuania-based financial Ukio Bankas Group incurred a net pre-audited loss in the amount of 33.5 million litas (9.7 million euros) in 2010, compared to a loss in 2009 of 70.5 million litas, reports LETA. In 2010, assets of the group increased by 714 million litas, or 17 percent, reaching five billion litas on Dec. 31, 2010. In 2010, customer deposits increased by 18 percent, to 4 billion litas, the net value of loans and finance lease portfolio increased by eight percent to 2.6 billion litas. According to the Chairman of the Board of Ukio Bankas, the bank expects further moderate growth of assets, and plans to strengthen its capital base in 2011.