In any case, Algirdas Butkevičius believes, the sum involved will not be large.
“A more detailed report should be submitted next week – it should be submitted by the temporary administrator, and measures are being taken to minimize the cost to taxpayers and ... the amount may actually be very small in the long term. It would depend on the decision that will be taken since there are several options available,” he said in an interview to Žinių Radijas (News Radio) on Thursday.
In the future, the state could issue some debt and the money, once this debt was redeemed, would be paid back to the bank’s capital, he said.
“Although I still don’t want to declare that there will be no detriment to the state, I think that the country may need to issue certain securities in a certain period, which will be redeemed later and the capital will get back,” Butkevičius said.
Late in January, the government raised 400 million euros on international debt markets.
If Ūkio Bankas went bankrupt, the insured deposits would be paid back by the Deposit Insurance Fund, which would borrow the funds from the state. The Fund held 81.2 million litas (EUR 23.5m) in long-term securities at the end of September.
According to data made available by the Lithuanian Banks’ Association, Ūkio Bankas’ deposit book totaled 3.5 billion litas, including 2.5 billion litas in retail deposits, at the end of September 2012.
