Rakauskas told ELTA in a comment that ERA Family Finance has a clear vision and a plan how by using its experience in the finance sector it can bring the bank to „new life“ adhering to the highest sustainability and transparency standards in close cooperation with the Bank of Lithuania.
„PayRay is a healthy and promising bank with a strong and professional managerial team. However, relation of previous shareholders with our country’s regulatory requirements had posed a challenge,“ said Rakauskas.
Development plans of the bank would be presented once the transaction is authorised.
PayRay Bank, operating since 2020, provides financial services to small- and medium-sized enterprises in Lithuania and Latvia. The bank’s shareholder is a Luxembourg-registered holding 2404 S.A. The company’s ultimate shareholders are Luigi Grandi and Gabriele Balducci, businesspeople of Italian origin.
This year, the Bank of Lithuania identified certain violations and shortcomings in PayRay activities as regards accounting, credit risk management and delegation of functions. The bank was fined EUR 210,000 as a result. The Bank of Lithuania said it was not provided information about the financial state of the finance group that owns PayRay.
Rakauskas, together with the Finnish company group Kesko, controls the largest in the Baltic countries chain of do-it-yourself house building, home repairing and improvement stores Kesko Senukai.
In 2013, Rakauskas and partners acquired Snoro Lizingas from the administrator of the bankrupt Snoras bank. A leading consumer loan company Mokilizingas was established on its basis, which was sold to Estonian bank Inbank in 2018.