The Bank of Lithuania () is the

national central bank The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the collective of European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their sole official currency. The European Central Bank (ECB) has, under Article 16 of its Statute,

for

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

within the

Eurosystem The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the collective of European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their sole official currency. The European Central Bank (ECB) has, under Article 16 of its Statute,

. It was the Lithuanian

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

from 1922 to 2014, albeit with a long suspension between 1940 and 1993. It issued the

Lithuanian litas The Lithuanian litas (ISO 4217, ISO currency code LTL, symbolized as Lt; plural ''litai'' (nominative) or ''litų'' (genitive) was the currency of Lithuania, until 1 January 2015, when it was replaced by the euro. It was divided into 100 Cent ...

between 1922 and 1940, the Lithuanian talonas in 1991-1993, then a second litas from 1993 to 2014. Since 2015, it has also been Lithuania's national competent authority within

European Banking Supervision European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is re ...

History

The Bank of Lithuania was first established in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

on 27 September 1922. Its first governor was

Vladas Jurgutis Vladas Jurgutis (17 November 1885 in Joskaudai near Palanga – 9 January 1966 in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian priest, economist, and professor. As the first chairman of the Bank of Lithuania he is unofficially considered to be the "father of the Li ...

. The first task of the bank was to replace

German ostmark () is the name given to a currency denominated in which was issued by Germany in 1918 for use in a part of the eastern areas under German control at that time, the area. The currency consisted of paper money issued on 4 April 1918 by the in ( ...

and ostrubel, which circulated after the

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, with the new Lithuanian currency, the

litas The Lithuanian litas (ISO currency code LTL, symbolized as Lt; plural ''litai'' (nominative) or ''litų'' (genitive) was the currency of Lithuania, until 1 January 2015, when it was replaced by the euro. It was divided into 100 centų (geniti ...

. The bank's mandate extended beyond a pure monetary authority, as it also entailed a developmental role with the possibility of allocating short-term credit to industry and agriculture. In 1931, the bank became a member of the

Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks. Its primary goal is to foster international monetary and financial cooperation while serving as a bank for central bank ...

(BIS).

Primary functions

According to the Bank's official website, the Bank of Lithuania performs these primary functions: * maintaining price stability, * formulating and implementing the monetary policy, * acting as an agent of the State Treasury. As a member of the European System of Central Banks, the Bank of Lithuania participates in the formulation and implementation of the

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...

of the

eurozone The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...

Bank leadership

Governors of the Bank of Lithuania: *

(1922–1929) *

Vladas Stašinskas Vladas Stašinskas (10 October 1874 – 11 March 1944) was a Lithuanian attorney, politician, and banker. In the Russian Empire, he was elected to the State Duma from the Kovno Governorate in 1907. In interwar Lithuania, he briefly served as the f ...

(1930–1939) *

Juozas Tūbelis Juozas Tūbelis (9 April 1882 – 30 September 1939) was a Lithuanian politician, Prime Minister, and member and chairman of the Lithuanian Nationalists Union. In 1908, he graduated from Polytechnical Institute in Riga receiving a diploma in agron ...

(1939) *

Juozas Paknys Juozas is a Lithuanian masculine given name, a shortened version of Juozapas, which in turn is the equivalent of English ''Joseph''. List of people named Juozas * Juozas Adomaitis-Šernas (1859–1922), Lithuanian scientific writer and book smug ...

(1939–1940) Chairmen of the board of the Bank of Lithuania: * Bronius Povilaitis (1990) *

Vilius Baldišis Vilius Baldišis (born 5 January 1961) is a Lithuanian politician. In 1990 he was among those who signed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. He was the chairman of the board of the Bank of Lithuania The Bank of Lithuani ...

(1990–1993) * Romualdas Visokavičius (1993) * Kazys Ratkevičius (1993–1996) *

Reinoldijus Šarkinas Reinoldijus Šarkinas (born 7 July 1946) was Chairman of the Bank of Lithuania from 1996 to 2011. Šarkinas graduated studies at the Economics Faculty of Vilnius University in 1968. Between 1980 and 1982 he served as Financial Adviser to the Ministr ...

(1996–2011) * Vitas Vasiliauskas (2011–2021) * Gediminas Šimkus (since 2021)

Management and structure

The Bank is governed by a board consisting of a chairperson, two deputy chairpersons and two members. According to The Bank of Lithuania official website, it is managed by Supervision Service; ten departments: Economics, Statistics, Market Operations, International Relations, Payment Systems, Cash, Accounting, Information Technology, General Services and Security; six autonomous divisions (Internal Audit, Legal, Organisation and Personnel, General and Public Relations, Risk Management), and Bank of Lithuania Branches in

and

Klaipėda Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...

References

External links

The Bank of Lithuania

Banks of Lithuania 1922 establishments in Lithuania Banks established in 1922 Companies based in Vilnius Financial regulatory authorities of Lithuania