Scope widens: Bigbank starts offering home loans in Latvia and Lithuania

Bigbank has entered the market for home loans in Latvia and Lithuania and seeks to achieve a ten per cent market share in each country.

According to Bigbank Chairman of the Management Board Martin Länts, the bank has always had a strong consumer loan portfolio, but the share of other loan products has been growing rapidly as well. „Although Bigbank started to offer home loans in Estonia only a year ago, we are now receiving an average of a thousand loan applications every month,“ Länts said.

Länts explained that the monthly average volume of new home loans amounted to 70 million euros in Latvia and 160 million euros in Lithuania and that Bigbank’s short-term goal was to acquire at least ten per cent of each market. „The Bigbank home loan interest in Estonia starts from 1.8% and we are offering the same terms now in Latvia and Lithuania,” promised Länts.

According to Martin Länts the Bigbank trademark is well known on the markets of both Baltic states. For example, Bigbank holds a third of the consumer credit market in Latvia and there is clearly room for development in the home loan sector as well. „In Latvia Bigbank is providing home loans with a special schedule, just like in Estonia. It means that during up to the first twenty years, only monthly interest must be paid, and payment of the principal can be postponed for a later stage. In Estonia, interest in this loan product has been growing along with the growing real estate prices,“ Länts added.