Bankas Snoras AB, Lithuania's fifth- biggest bank by assets, is insolvent and will file for court protection from creditors to avoid a costly bailout for taxpayers, Bloomberg News reported today. The bank's financial situation is "worse than previously identified" and saving the bank "would cost significantly more and would take longer than the available liquidity" at Snoras, the central bank said in a statement. Some 3.4 billion litai ($1.3 billion) in assets are missing, Governor Vitas Vasiliauskas added. The government took over Snoras on Nov. 16 after the central bank discovered that assets reported on the bank's balance sheet were missing. Former shareholders Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas were detained in London yesterday after Lithuanian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant on suspicion of fraud and embezzlement. Read more.
