At the end of the twentieth century the Baltic States began the process of sequential displacement of local businesses from the banking sector to foreign capital, represented by Nordic banks, mainly Swedish and Finnish. The article notes that local banks are engaged primarily in niche businesses and have not any potential to be a serious competitor to the Nordic, which have a universal banking. It is emphasized that banks with national capital (Latvia - 19 %, in Lithuania - 4.2 %, Estonia - 3 %) in the Baltic banking market does not play a decisive role. The presence of foreign capital in the banking sector in the Baltic States has now reached a level at which the financial stability of the republics is directly dependent on a stable operation of foreign banks.