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Russian cash not flooding Latvia amid Cyprus thaw: minister

28 March 2013, 14:02 CET

(VILNIUS) - Eurozone hopeful Latvia insisted Thursday the Baltic state was not in danger of becoming a new offshore haven for Russian cash amid the debt and banking crisis racking zone member Cyprus.

"There is a very, very minor inflow of Cyprus money," Latvia's Finance Minister Andris Vilks said as Cyprus banks holding hefty Russian deposits reopened after a nearly two-week lockdown.

But customers there faced unprecedented curbs to stop them draining the island's coffers after its eurozone bailout.

"If we're talking about non-resident deposits (in Latvia), the money from Cyprus accounts for something around 10 or 15 percent only," he added, speaking at Thursday talks with his Baltic counterparts in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Non-resident deposits (NRDs) in Latvian banks rose by just 0.4 percent or 26.9 million lats (38 million euros) in February compared to January, according to official data released on Thursday.

Kristaps Zakulis, the head of the Latvia's FKTK financial market regulator, echoed Vilks.

"We're looking at the statistics (on new deposits) and we don't see any movements right now," Zakulis told AFP in Riga after talks with Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and central and commercial bankers.

With the European Commission expected in June to give its assessment of Latvia's readiness to join the eurozone next January, Latvian officials are desperate to play down any suggestion their banks may be vulnerable and insist their financial system complies fully with EU rules.

Both the IMF and European Commission have warned Riga that high levels of non-resident deposits (NRDs) in local banks bring liquidity and money laundering risks.

But amid the crisis in Cyprus, eyes are on the Baltic state of two million along with other offshore destinations such as Luxembourg and Switzerland as its banking sector already attracts a large number of depositors from Russia and other CIS countries, largely due to the fact that there is a significant Russian-speaking community remaining from Latvia's days as a Soviet republic.

According to official figures, around half of the 12 billion lats (17 billion euros, $22 billion) worth of deposits in Latvian banks come from non-residents, and they grew by more than 20 percent in 2012.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), up to 90 percent of these come from Russia and other CIS states.

"In Latvia we're talking about tens of millions (of euros in Russian deposits). In Cyprus, we're talking about tens of billions - it isn't comparable," Zakulis observed Thursday.


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