Banking systems may crash
At around 11:30 a.m., Valdas Sejavičius, acting Head of Swedbank Investment Management, told the Lrytas portal that residents are actively logging in to online banking, consulting by phone, or visiting customer service branches in person after registering in advance.
However, he points out that there is no need to rush to submit applications on the first day, as the law stipulates that funds will only be paid out at the end of the quarter.
„Banking systems are working, but due to the increased flow of customers, some of them may be slower.
Customers are not only inquiring about withdrawing from the second pension tier, but also asking about other opportunities offered by the pension reform and seeking advice before making decisions, as well as signing third pension tier agreements,“ he said.
Vaidotas Rūkas, Head of Artea Asset Management, echoed Sejavičius. It appears that the bank has even strengthened its customer consultation capabilities as a result of the reform.
Although Artea Bank's operations have not been disrupted, there have been some glitches in the pension self-service system, through which residents can submit applications for pension accumulation.
„In fact, some customers rushed to submit applications for second-tier pension accumulation in the first days of the year, even though there is no rush.
Due to higher-than-usual customer traffic, visitors to the Artea pension self-service portal may have to wait to log in. There were also some issues when the time allocated for logging in expired before customers reached their turn. As a result, some customers had to wait longer. The system is currently running smoothly – we are informing customers that they may have to wait for about an hour before they can log in and submit their application. We hope that the waiting time will be reduced in the long run due to technical measures,“ commented Rūkas on the situation at around 12 noon.
He also added that some customers who logged into the Artea pension self-service portal and filled out their requests were unable to sign them. However, this problem is known and is being resolved.
„It is interesting that, even though it is only January 2, we have already received not only requests to terminate pension accumulation, but also requests to cancel such requests,“ added Rūkas.
At the time, Paulius Kabelis, CEO of SEB Investment Management, said that due to technical difficulties, some customers were unable to submit pension reform-related requests via internet banking for a period of time on Friday morning. However, the issues were resolved by lunchtime.
„Customer consultations and the submission of requests through other channels worked without any problems. The problem was quickly resolved, and requests can now be submitted via internet banking without any issues. We apologise for the temporary inconvenience caused to our customers,“ said Kabelis.
We also contacted Luminor representatives for comment. We will update this article once we receive a response.
46,000 inquiries
Malgožata Kozič, a representative of Sodra, told the news portal Lrytas that there was no significant increase in activity at the Sodra call centre on January 2.
However, Sodra received as many as 46,000 inquiries from pension accumulation companies during the first two days of 2026. These inquiries sought to clarify which portion of a specific person's accumulated assets belonged to the state and which to their personal contributions.
However, this does not mean that 46,000 residents rushed to withdraw their pension fund savings on January 1–2. As Kozič commented, residents may be interested in the situation before making a decision.
In addition to inquiries to pension accumulation companies, this information can now be found in your personal Sodra account, which was not possible until this January.
Will speak only after a month
Meanwhile, Vaidotas Rūkas, head of the Lithuanian Investment and Pension Funds Association, told the news portal Lrytas that the association does not plan to evaluate the flow of requests or their structure in the coming days, as the situation is still developing.
„It will be possible to talk about clearer trends in a month, when each pension accumulation company shares its data with the Bank of Lithuania.
Looking at the experience of other countries, such as Estonia, it can be seen that in such cases, some residents make decisions at the very beginning of the process, while others are in no hurry. Given that Lithuania has two years for making decisions, it is likely that a significant number of people will postpone their decision and make it at a later stage, perhaps even as the end of the period approaches,“ commented Rūkas.
More flexibility for savers
We want to remind you that on January 1 this year, amendments to the Pension Accumulation Law came into force, giving second-tier pension savers greater flexibility in planning their financial futures.
It is now possible to withdraw part of the accumulated funds, terminate accumulation due to a dire health condition, or temporarily suspend contributions an unlimited number of times. A transition period has been set from the beginning of 2026 to the end of 2027, during which each accumulation participant can decide whether to continue accumulating or withdraw.
From now on, pension accumulation participants will be able to withdraw up to 25% of their accumulated pension assets, but no more than their own contributions.
In cases where accumulation participants have not paid contributions from their own funds, it will not be possible to withdraw part of the accumulated pension assets.
There is also the possibility of terminating pension accumulation early due to health reasons if the participant meets at least one of the specified conditions. This applies to people who have been referred for palliative care services, who have a serious illness included in the approved list of serious diseases, or who have been diagnosed with a 70% or greater loss of working capacity.
It is also possible to withdraw from the pension accumulation scheme less than 5 years before reaching retirement age. This is possible if the person has not been granted an early retirement pension and their accumulated pension assets do not exceed 50% of the pension annuity limit.