OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2010. In 2009 Bank SNORAS deposit portfolio grew by LTL 0.992 billion and at the end of the year it comprised LTL 4.83 billion. During the past year, the deposit portfolio of the bank increased by 25.8 per cent or 3.5 times faster than the entire deposit market of Lithuania, which according to the data of the Bank of Lithuania grew by 7.4 per cent. The fastest growth in Bank SNORAS was in the time deposit portfolio of natural persons, reported the press-centre of Bank SNORAS.

“Last year showed an obvious trust of residents and companies in the bank’s reliability and stability, which we consolidated in 2009 by more than LTL 146 million having increased the bank’s capital base and offering some of the most attractive deposit interest rates in the market. Statistics show that people have returned to the classical method of safe saving, i.e. deposits, which is also proved by the fact that in 2009 over 70 per cent of depositors extended their deposits in Bank SNORAS, who, of course, were using the privileges of the loyalty programmes designated for the permanent customers of the bank,” states Naglis Stancikas, the First Vice President of Bank SNORAS.

The number of the bank’s depositors – residents in Lithuania according to the data as of 31 December 2009 comprised 140 thousand or it was by 21 thousand (15.7 per cent) larger than at the end of 2008.

“The fastest growing in the bank time deposit portfolio of natural persons was mostly conditioned by the created and developed regional customer service network of Bank SNORAS, which comprises 252 customer service subdivisions in the country. Moreover, at the moment in more than a dozen small towns of the country, Bank SNORAS mini-banks are the only subdivisions providing the banking services to the local residents,” says N. Stancikas.

The demography of the residents having time deposits in Bank SNORAS has hardly changed within a year. Women comprised the majority (63.5 per cent) of all depositors. During the past several years a tendency, although inconsiderable, is noticed which shows “younger” age of the depositors. The number of the depositors under age 51 increased by 1.16 per cent within a year in the total number of the depositors.

The statistics of the time deposit agreements shows that a belief that the majority of the depositors includes residents of the retirement age is merely a myth because more than 53 per cent of all depositors in bank SNORAS are under pension age (under 61 years old).

On the basis of the data of the Lithuanian Banks Association (30-11-2009), Bank SNORAS, according to the size of the household deposit portfolio, is the third in the market of Lithuanian banks and comprises 14.8 per cent of the entire natural person depositors’ market as well as 12.7 per cent of the entire deposit market.