Lithuania's Ministry of Finance announced that Finance Minister Kristupas Vaitiekunas will meet Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski in Warsaw on 19 December to discuss opportunities for Polish banks to expand in Lithuania and approaches to ensuring sustainable, continuous financial support to Ukraine. The ministry flagged Lithuania’s support for the European Union initiative to finance Ukraine using frozen Russian assets and welcomed progress on implementing a “Reparations Loan” model based on immobilised Russian assets, describing it as a way to provide rapid, sustainable support without additional pressure on European Union Member State budgets. It also pointed to PKO Bank Polski’s decision to open a representative office in Vilnius as a step towards deeper Lithuania-Poland financial market links and greater competition in Lithuania’s banking sector, where three firms hold 76.4% of the market. During the meeting, Vaitiekunas plans to invite Polish financial market participants to consider different entry routes into Lithuania, including opening bank branches or acquiring a full banking licence.

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