The total volume of deposits at Vilniaus Bankas, Lithuania's leading commercial bank, fell by 91.4 million litas (26.5 million euros), including 9.8 million litas' worth of private individuals' deposits in December when rumors about the bank's alleged financial difficulties broke out.
Julius Niedvaras, president of Vilniaus Bankas, declined to comment early this week on the possible impact of the rumors on the bank's performance results.
Vilniaus Bankas and top public officials have asked the country's law enforcement institutions to identify the sources behind the rumors, which caused an uproar on the eve of the presidential run-off and forced outgoing President Valdas Adamkus to hold an emergency press conference.
According to data provided by the Lithuanian Central Bank, deposits at Vilniaus Bankas totaled 4.5 billion litas in late 2002, compared with 4.606 billion litas in later November. Private individuals' deposits reached 2.3 billion litas in late December versus 2.3 billion litas a month previous.
The Vilniaus Bankas group announced an unaudited net profit of 126.5 million litas for 2002, up by 32.9 percent from the figure a year earlier.
Vilniaus Bankas posted the best annual 2002 results compared with those of other Baltic banks controlled by the Scandinavian bank SEB, which holds nearly 99 percent of the bank's shares.
Over the year the number of Vilniaus Bankas' customers rose by 20.4 percent from 328,000 to 391,000.
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