Lithuanians don’t buy the Latvian currency the lat

Posted by editor on 8/20/09 • Categorized as Baltic States, Business, Finance • Print This Post •

The daily Lietuvos Rytas reported on 20 August about that the Latvian currency lat has become an unwanted currency for some Lithuanian banks. The paper states that the Danske Bankas buys the lats currency at a mere 4.5 litas, which is almost 50 Lithuanian cents below the official exchange rate.

Danske Bankas spokesman Rolandas Kajokas said that the bank had cut the price due to a considerable decline in demand for the Latvian currency. According to him “If one purchases a large quantity of the currency at a high exchange rate, it could be difficult to sell or lend it”.

However the spokesman was quick to deny that the bank would consider the lat to be an unreliable currency.

Mr Suchadolski from the Nordea Bank said to the paper that “In setting their currency exchange rates, some banks take various risks into account. But this factor is not a decisive one. The Latvian lat is not in demand at the moment”.

Andrius Bakanas from the Swedbank informed the paper that “We ship to Latvia the bulk of the lats purchased in Lithuania. Lithuanian residents purchase only around one-sixth of the Latvian currency sold to the bank’s branches”.