Founded in 1989, Ūkio Bankas, which initially operated under the name of Komercinis Pramonės Bankas (Commercial Industry Bank), had Sweden's investment company Swedfund, the UK investment bank Nomura International, Estonia's Hansabank (now Swedbank), and other foreign banks and funds among its shareholders in its first 15 years of operation.
Despite repeated statements by Ūkio Bankas' management that the bank was seeking to attract a strategic foreign investor, it has never managed to do so. Liutauras Varanavičius, the then chairman of Ūkio Bankas' management board, mentioned in 1999 a possible merger with Snoras, another local bank that went bankrupt in 2011, if the two banks managed to buy a majority stake in what then was Žemės Ūkio Bankas (Bank of Agriculture) from the state.
Romanov, who had been associated with Ūkio Bankas for a long time, purchased a 7.2-percent stake in the bank in 2004, thus becoming a direct shareholder, and steadily increased his shareholding until it reached 64.92 percent in April 2012.
The businessman also controls Ūkio Banko Investicijų Grupė (Ūkio Bankas Investment Group, or UBIG). Ūkio Bankas was the founder of UBIG in 1998, but the bank's officials said several years later that the bank did not have control of the company.
With Ūkio Bankas rapidly developing its business in Lithuania and planning a more active expansion abroad, in April 2011, the central Bank of Lithuania told the bank to operate in a more reliable manner. In subsequent years, the bank was repeatedly told to reduce its operating risks.
In January 2012, Ūkio Bankas set aside 50 million litas (EUR 14.5m) in provisions for loans it had provided to property developers. As a result of this, the bank ended the first quarter with a loss.
Following Ūkio Bankas' acquisition of 94.9 percent of shares in Vilnius' Žalgiris Stadium in a deal worth 357 million litas last November, rumors began circulating in the market about the bank's possible merger with Šiaulių Bankas, allegedly sought by the Bank of Lithuania.
Ūkio Bankas has 12 branches and 47 customer service outlets in Lithuania, as well as three representative offices abroad: in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Last year, the bank closed its office in Scotland.
