speech by gediminas simkus at the joint webinar “ investment in the baltics : from pandemic to war ” 2022 - 05 - 20 joint bank of lithuania, bank of estonia, bank of latvia, and european investment bank webinar “ investment in the baltics : from pandemic to war ” 20 may 2022 welcome and opening remarks good morning, dear vice president ostros, governor muller, governor kazaks, dear colleagues and webinar viewers, a warm welcome to this joint webinar organised by the bank of lithuania, the bank of estonia, the bank of latvia, and the european investment bank ( eib ). we are living in extraordinary times : just as the pandemic pressures started to ease, we got hit by another huge shock – the war in ukraine. let me stress that we stand in full solidarity with ukraine. to date lithuania welcomed some 51, 000 ukrainian refugees and is one of the largest donors of bilateral aid to ukraine in percentages of gdp. while we hope for a swift end to this unjustified war, currently the risks that the war in ukraine escalates remain high. we are experiencing an unprecedented degree of uncertainty. this is worrying, as numerous surveys and reports show that uncertainty is the largest barrier for private corporate investment in the baltics. fortunately, policymakers can address this. as we witnessed in the months following the outbreak of the covid - 19 pandemic, high quality and well - targeted public investment in times of high uncertainty enhances output. it also crowds in private investment, rather than crowding it out. the covid - 19 pandemic offered an opportunity for firms to become more digital. demand for electronic services rapidly increased, creating perfect conditions for expansion of electronic payment service providers. growth in electronic payments created value in the lithuanian financial sector. for instance, one of the lithuanian payments start - ups recently attracted an impressive 65 mln us dollar series a funding. the growing fintech sector also contributes towards solving the structural problem of concentration in the lithuanian financial sector. at the same time, business funding through crowdfunding platforms also gained traction. as pointed out in the eib investment survey that will be presented here shortly, total investment in lithuania rose to 5 % above pre - pandemic levels by the end of 2021. a similar pattern was observed in latvia, while in estonia investment in 2021 stood at staggering 30 to 40 % above pre - pandemic

gediminas simkus : speech at baltic aml forum 2021 speech by mr gediminas simkus, chairman of the board of the bank of lithuania, at the baltic anti money laundering ( aml ) forum 2021, vilnius, 12 october 2021. * * * check against delivery dear market participants, lawyers, financial intelligence and compliance experts, ladies and gentlemen : a very warm welcome to this year ’ s baltic aml forum. it is my great pleasure to see so many of you gathered here today to discuss the issues of assessing and properly managing the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. i am pleased to see market participants and representatives of public sector both investing their time and resources in debating these issues. it gives me assurance that not only we have a common ground in prioritising prevention of financial crimes, but that we are willing to join forces in finding the best solutions. it is wonderful to have the minister of finance ms. gintare skaiste opening this conference. the ministry of finance is our core partner in founding the centre of excellence in anti - money laundering that was established this may – a platform to bring market participants and policymakers into a close dialogue. a quick overview on where we stand. technological advancements, such as blockchain, are disrupting the financial sector. there is no doubt that innovative business models in the financial sector are reshaping nearly every area of products and services, creating new opportunities and value for consumers and business. however, we must not forget that these developments also bring substantial new challenges, and can open gaps for misconduct to seep in. the united nations estimate that globally every year up to 2 trillion us dollars gets laundered. in the last few years some of the nordic - baltic jurisdictions were shaken with cases of the alleged systematic use of banks for money laundering. during the pandemic, the scale of money laundering and financial fraud has likely increased. we thus need to stay alert and search for ways to update and enhance our anti - money laundering and counter terrorist financing frameworks. i will now elaborate on our – the bank of lithuania ’ s – approach on dealing with money laundering and terrorist financing. the bank of lithuania constantly monitors and assesses vulnerabilities in market participants ’ risk control, anti - money laundering and terrorist financing prevention frameworks. in addition to inspections, numerous consultations, meetings with supervised entities are also made. we want to ensure that lithuania ’ s financial system has proper and sound risk management and