During the ordinary general shareholders’ meeting of AB Bank SNORAS, which took place on 31st March 2010, the bank’s profit distribution was approved.

During the ordinary general shareholders’ meeting of AB Bank SNORAS, which took place on 31st March 2010, the bank’s profit distribution was approved. Some part of the profit was allocated for the reserves whose designation is to ensure the reliability, security and continuity of the bank’s activity: LTL 1.3 million was allocated for the compulsory reserve fund, LTL 2 million allocated for the reserve capital to cover possible loan losses. Presently the sum, accumulated in the compulsory and reserve fund, exceeds LTL 38 million. The remaining portion of the profit, according to the decision of the shareholders, was left undistributed and it strengthens the bank’s capital base.

During the meeting, it was also decided not to pay out the dividends to the shareholders, not to allocate money for the employees’ and managers’ bonuses. The approved sum to pay the salary for the members of the Supervisory Board of the bank was twice as less as the one provided for in the bank’s orders.

“In 2009, we were the only bank in the market which earned a really tangible profit. This fact confirms the correctly chosen direction of the bank’s activity and also that we effectively manage our business. It is joyful that despite the periods of growth and downfall in economy, the bank has been working profitably every year since the very beginning of its activity. Although the situation in the financial markets was quite intensive, last year we managed to expand our activity: we established 6 new subdivisions of the bank in Lithuania and a branch in Latvia. In the mean time, the opposite situation dominated in the market when most banks stopped the activity of their subdivisions, especially in the regions. The earned profit and the bank’s investments in the companies providing the well-known financial services in the Lithuanian market already give results; in March this year the international rating agency Fitch Ratings improved the rating outlook of Bank SNORAS,” says Raimondas Baranauskas, the president of AB Bank SNORAS.

During the general shareholders’ meeting, the bank’s annual report was also introduced, the audited financial statement was approved, the partial changes in the bank’s Articles of Association were confirmed, which are related to the peculiarities of the activity of the bank’s Board and the Supervisory Board. The changes in the Articles of Association were conditioned by the objective to actualize the edition of the bank’s Articles of Association so that it would correspond to the latter changes of the Law on Companies.

During the meeting, the audit company UAB Ernst & Young Baltic was chosen for auditing the 2010 consolidated annual financial accountability of AB Bank SNORAS and the group of the bank’s companies.

Bank SNORAS shareholders, during the annual meeting, elected a new member of the Supervisory Board – Hans Berndt, who is a German citizen and since 1997 till 2008 has worked in Parex Bank group: as the adviser to the bank’s management, the bank’s representative in Frankfurt am Main, since 2000 – the deputy chairman of Parex Bank Supervisory Board. He will replace Maksim Anchipolovsky, a member of the Supervisory Board, who submitted an application for resignation.

According to the audited data, during last year, AB Bank SNORAS earned LTL 8.7 million profit. Within 2009, the bank’s assets grew by 11.4 per cent up to LTL 6.3 billion and they were by LTL 647.8 million larger than at the beginning of 2009 when the banks’ assets in the market decreased by 6.1 per cent.

The general loan portfolio of the market diminished almost 3 times more than in Bank SNORAS, whose diversified loan portfolio of the bank allowed to endure the consequences of the difficult economic period much easier; therefore, last year Bank SNORAS loan portfolio decreased inconsiderably (4.8 per cent), in the market – 14.1 per cent. In 2009, Bank SNORAS deposit portfolio grew by 27.7 per cent or almost by LTL 1 billion. This growth was almost 4 times greater than that of the market (7.4 per cent). When the share property of the banks (without foreign units of the banks) diminished by 25.7 per cent in the market, the property of Bank SNORAS shareholders grew by 2 per cent.

Presently, in the market of the Lithuanian banks, Bank SNORAS is the third according to the deposit portfolio and the fifth according to the managed assets.