"Research carried out by the Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC) shows that most commercial bank services in Latvia are more expensive than in the other Baltic states. Likewise, all four of the largest commercial banks in Latvia have substantially restricted the provision of in-person services. The cost and availability of commercial bank services was therefore one of the key issues we discussed today when meeting the Governor of Latvijas Banka (LB), Mārtiņš Kazāks," the Minister for Economics, Viktors Valainis, stressed after the meeting.

The Minister for Economics and the Governor of LB agreed that both sides will work closely together on resolving this issue in the near future, involving the Competition Council (KP) and the Consumer Rights Protection Centre closely in the process as well. V. Valainis and M. Kazāks also agreed to work together on changes to the bank lending laws that would simplify and reduce the cost of refinancing legal entities' loans with another bank. As is known, on 15 February the Saeima adopted amendments to four laws in order to make it easier for consumers to refinance mortgage loans.

The PTAC study carried out earlier at the Minister for Economics' instruction shows that basic bank package servicing fees in Latvia are higher at all four of the largest credit institutions compared with neighbouring countries. The charge for currency conversion on card transactions is the highest in Latvia at three of the four credit institutions. Latvia also has the most expensive debit card and credit card servicing fees outside the customer package in cases where such a service is offered. As PTAC points out, although the fees compared differ by a few dozen cents or percentage points, given the total number and size of transactions and the number of monthly transactions, the additional revenue earned from serving Latvian consumers could be substantial.

In PTAC's view, at first glance credit institutions in all three Baltic states provide the cash collection function at consumers' expense, setting the amount that can be withdrawn from a cash machine without a commission fee at, on average, ten times less than the amount that can be deposited into an account. PTAC likewise points to the fact that all four of the largest credit institutions in all three Baltic states have substantially restricted the provision of in-person services, in some cases abandoning them altogether or setting in-person service fees that are not economically justified for the consumer.