Sweden's SEB is reporting rapid uptake of e-banking at its Lithuanian subsidiary Vilniaus Bankas, with online customer numbers doubling in the last three months.
Vilniaus Bankas commenced its e-bank operations (VB Internet@s) in September last year. At year-end, the bank had signed up 11,262 customers for its online banking service - three times greater the volume anticipated by its management says SEB. By the beginning of April 2001, the number of e-bankers had grown to 20,108 nearly doubling the customer base in just three months.
SEB says some 80% of the nation's online banking users are customers of Vilniaus Bankas, which is the country's largest bank, with a market share of slightly more than 40 percent and 280,000 retail banking customers.
SEB is a major shareholder in three Baltic banks: Eesti Uhispank with 390,000 customers, 70,000 e-banks customers and 64 branch offices in Estonia; Latvijas Unibanka with 318,600 customers, 27,000 e-banks customers and 70 branch offices in Latvia; and Vilniaus Bankas. Europe-wide, SEB claims 850,000 online customers from a total base of four million.