30 Oct 2013 17:16

Latvian banks see 1.4% drop in assets in Jan-Sept

RIGA. Oct 30 (Interfax/BNS) - Latvian banks saw assets drop 1.4% in January-September 2013 to 19.95 billion lati, the Finance and Capital Markets Commission told the Baltic News Service.

The consolidated loan portfolio dropped 5.6% in the nine months, including a 1.3% drop in September to 11.08 billion lati.

Retail loans went down 0.7% in the nine months and corporate loans - 1.3%. Loans to financial institutions dropped 0.8% and loans to non-residents were down 3%.

Loans late by over 90 days made up 9.9% of the loan portfolio, including 8.2% of the retail loan portfolio and 6.5% of the corporate loan portfolio.

Deposits grew 3.9% to 12.96 billion lati. Resident deposits amounted to 6.55 billion lati and non-resident deposits - 6.41 billion lati.

The liquidity indicator in the banking sector was at 64.7% at the end of September (30% is the requirement) and equity adequacy was at 18.8% (8%).

Latvian banks posted profit of 133.65 million lati, up 12% year-on-year. Sixteen Latvian banks posted a profit and five foreign bank branches, which account for 96.7% of banking sector assets.

Latvia has 28 banks, including nine foreign bank branches.

The lats is pegged to the euro at a rate of 0.7028/EUR1.