OREANDA-NEWS. January 23, 2012. As a result of steps taken by the Bankruptcy Administrator to resume loan operations, SNORAS customers can once again service their loan agreements taken out prior to the Bank being placed in temporary administration. Customers can service their loans in one of two ways, reported the press-centre of SNORAS Bank:

- In Lithuanina Litas using existing account arrangements

- In foreign currency using the Bank’s account held at SEB

Details of the SEB account are available via the Bank’s website, Call Centre or any one of our 17 open branches and sub-branches nationwide.

Neil Cooper the Bankruptcy Administrator said: “When the Bank was placed into formal Bankruptcy proceedings we immediately lost our licence and hence our ability to take deposits. Following a great deal of hard work it is now back to business for our loan operations team and I am very pleased that we have been able to resume the loan repayment process as close as possible to the previous arrangements for the convenience of our customers.  I would very mucfh like to thank our customers for their patience during this period”.

The Bank’s records for its 330,000 retail and 12,000 corporate borrowers have now been restored. This was a significant exercise given the number of customers and the variety of products previously offered by the Bank and as result of this exercise customers will be able to view their current loan and deposit balances. Customers who have already received compensation from the deposit insurance fund have had these amounts deducted from their deposit balances to reflect their successful claims.

Loan customers are now requested to pay the scheduled loan amounts on time and in the correct amount in line with their original loan agreements. Any overpayments by customers will be held as a credit and applied to the next scheduled payment but such amounts will not be returned to customers and no interest will accrue on any such amount. If over payments exceed a customer’s next monthly payment then customers can request that these amounts be applied in immediately prepayment.

The Bank’s loan administration team, branch managers and credit officers have been briefed on the arrangements and will be available to assist customers with loan servicing and refinancing questions.

In recognition of the disruption caused to the Bank’s borrowers the Bankruptcy Administrator has agreed to waive default interest on outstanding loans for the period (including) 16 November 2012 to 31 January 2012. Default interest will resume on unpaid balances from the 1 February 2012.

Customers should note that these arrangements do not include application of the new law on Banks of set off which came into effect on 1 January 2012. These new positions will affect an estimated 50 000 borrowers who were eligible for compensation and who have not received the maximum compensation amount. A further announcement is expected shortly to clarify the position those borrowers. Please monitor our website www.snoras.com for further information.

Further details for SNORAS borrowers wish to service their loans or to repay their loans are available on the updated SNORAS website www.snoras.com , via the SNORAS Call Centre or in branches.