01/04/2020
Following the announcement of quarantine in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, the Bank of Lithuania had to address the question of how to organize its work further as the activities of the regulator cannot be terminated and financial institutions supervision must continue. In this context, the Board has decided that all meetings related to the supervision of financial market participants can be conducted remotely (2020 03 26 Resolution No. 03-37).
We would like to draw the attention of financial market participants to the fact that the Bank of Lithuania continues:
- to impose sanctions, give instructions and obligations, establish prohibitions and enforce other mandatory measures to the supervised financial participants upon the detection of deficiencies in their activities and breaches of the law.
- to make decisions, when necessary, regarding restructuration of financial sector entities, apply to court on initiation of bankruptcy proceedings against the supervised financial market participants.
- to issue licenses and other permission forms to operate in the financial market and may suspend or revoke them if necessary.
Organization of remote meetings
In hearing cases of administrative offenses or in other cases provided by legal acts, managers and / or other persons of financial market participants, whose activities are under investigation, will be invited to the meeting of the Board for consideration of the application of sanctions to supervised financial market participants.
If due to a state of emergency, extreme situation or quarantine the person entitled to participate in the hearing of a breach of the law is unable to attend the Board meeting, but has the technical capability to attend the meeting remotely, such meeting will have to be arranged by the means of remote communication. However, the presence of the person at such meeting is not necessary – if the person does not have technical capabilities to participate or disagrees to attend the meeting remotely, the meeting can take place without participation of the person and will be considered legitimate.
Identity document of the person attending the Board meeting remotely as well as the power of attorney (if needed) will have to be presented and verified while the person is introducing himself.
Persons attending the Board meeting remotely will also need to ensure that the meeting is not monitored or heard by persons who are not invited to the Board meeting or whose attendance has not been approved by the chairman of the meeting.
“In this difficult time for the Lithuanian business and economy, financial market participants should not forget their obligations not only to their clients, but also to supervisory institutions and to fulfil their obligations in a proper and timely manner in order to avoid negative consequences, – says Inga Karulaitytė-Kvainauskienė, ECOVIS ProventusLaw Head of Fintech group. – It is great that the Bank of Lithuania has taken steps to ensure continuity of financial market supervision processes during quarantine as we believe it fosters confidence in Lithuanian financial institutions”.
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