Swedish Banks Provoke Latvian Rebuke as Dominance Denounced
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Scandinavian banks, which suffered record impairments in the Baltics four years ago, are now being criticized by the government in Latvia for dominating a financial industry it says should do more to finance growth.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said Nordic banks, including Stockholm-based Swedbank AB and SEB AB, are over-represented in Latvia’s financial industry as he urges the banks to ease their lending practices and channel more credit into the former Soviet economy.