Another factor in the decision made by the central bank were public statements made by Vladimir Romanov, Ūkio Bankas owner, about financial difficulties of the basketball club Žalgiris Kaunas. The statements, made last week, prompted people to withdraw their deposits from the bank.
"Following the shareholder's statement, (depositors) began to withdraw their deposits and the bank could experience a liquidity problem. Its liquidity was below 29 percent. It would have had no funds at all within several days," Vitas Vasiliauskas said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Following an inspection, the bank had to set aside 800 million litas in additional provisions, the central bank governor said.
"The inspection was completed on February 1. It established (the need for) 800 million litas in additional provisions, which would mean that the capital is eaten up and, in principle, that we can hardly speak about the continuity of the bank's operations," he said.
State-insured deposits at the bank currently amount to 2.6 billion litas, the governor has said.
Vasiliauskas said that he did not know where Romanov was at the moment, adding that he had been last contacted last Tuesday and asked to strengthen the bank's capital.
Over 1 billion euros due
Ūkio Bankas' amounts due to customers, including deposits, totaled 3.527 billion litas (EUR 1.022b) at the end of last September, up 2.6 percent, or 88.191 million litas, compared with the end of 2011.
Having set aside 50 million litas in provisions for real estate loans in January 2012, Ūkio Bankas posted a net loss of 47.818 million litas for the first nine months of the year, up from 4.958 million litas in the same period of 2011.
At the end of September, Ūkio Bankas' assets totaled 4.094 billion litas, down by 3 percent from the end of 2011, of which the loan and lease portfolio amounted to 2.231 billion litas, down 2.3 percent.
Based on data from the Lithuanian Banks' Association, Ūkio Bankas was the country's sixth-biggest commercial banks in terms of assets in late September.
Ūkio Bankas has a share capital of 345.824 million litas. Vladimir Romanov owned 64.92 percent of the shares on September 30, 2012, and First Partneriai held a 9.47-percent stake. Other shareholders held stakes of less than 5 percent.
The NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange on Tuesday suspended trading in Ūkio Bankas' shares, which are quoted on the bourse's blue-chip Main List. The bank's share price at the suspension of trading was 0.093 euros, and its market capitalization was 32.162 million euros.
