Analysis of competition in the banking industry allows to determine the obstacles to its effective functioning.The aim of this research is to analyse the competitiveness level in the modern banking sector of Latvia.Identification and analysis of the main characteristics of the competitive environment of the banking sector in Latvia is done on the basis of indicators characterizing the concentration of the industry, the intensity of competition as well as financial indicators reflecting the financial condition of banks and affecting their competitiveness.As a result, for the first time the level of competitiveness of the banking sector in Latvia was evaluated and supported by comparative analysis of all the banks on the basis of their financial performance. It gives ground for recommendations to the stakeholders on measures to raise competitiveness. Results and directions for further reDeniss Krasovskis, Andrejs Limanskis, Erika Pancenko 126 search can attract attention of the research community in Latvia, European Union and globally.

Introduction to the topic under investigation. With the transition to the information economy, intellectual capital is becoming increasingly important and can be considered as a source of formation of the competitiveness of an enterprise. It should also be noted that despite the many approaches to assessing competitiveness, not all of them withstand criticism or are widely used in practice. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to analyze the intellectual capital and competitiveness of industrial enterprises of the Baltic states. Methodology. The study uses quantitative and qualitative methods; the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) was used to assess intellectual capital, while the dynamic method and rating assessment of financial indicators were used to assess the competitiveness of enterprises. Main results. The paper analyses the competitiveness of enterprises and calculates the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) of industrial enterprises whose shares are listed on the Nasdaq Baltic market. The study confirms that more efficient use of intellectual capital provides higher indicators of competitiveness of an enterprise; however, the competitiveness of an enterprise is influenced by other factors, for example, the sources of financing used. The theoretical contribution. The dynamic method of assessing the competitiveness of enterprises was employed; it was shown that more effective use of intellectual capital provides an enterprise with competitive advantages. Practical implications. To assess the competitiveness of an enterprise, we use a refined dynamic method, which is supplemented by the VAIC indicator, which will allow us to take into account in the assessment the effectiveness of the use of the intellectual capital of an enterprise. Keywords: intellectual capital, competitiveness, value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC), dynamic method of competitiveness, rating assessment of financial indicators.

-The importance of international trade for the economic development of any country, on the one hand, and the decreasing rates of goods turnover within the EU countries in recent years, on the other hand, reveal the relevance of the research on the assessment of Latvia's trade potential with the EU countries.The aim of this study is to measure and assess Latvia's export potential with the European Union countries based on the gravity model.Since the development of trade relations is influenced by various factors, the article provides an overview of empirical studies that analyse various factors determining the level of trade among the countries.Possible volume of exports from Latvia to the EU countries was calculated on the basis of gravity model; calculations were conditioned by several factors included in the model, such as GDP, geographical distance and the degree of country's economic freedom. The article also provides an assessment of Latvia's export potential realisation extent.The method described in this article allowed applying the gravity model for the assessment of cooperation between Latvia and the EU countries, and was suitable for the quantitative evaluation of the extent to which export potential was realised in other countries.

The relevance of this study is tied to the fact, that more effective application of export potential represents a major step towards the integration of Latvia’s economy into a unified economic framework with other European Union countries. In addition, the lack of a generally accepted methodology for assessing export potential increases the significance of these studies from a methodological point of view. The purpose of this study is to analyse the trends in Latvian exports and assess the possibilities of increasing the volume of exports of goods to the EU countries. This study applied quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, analysis of statistical data, methods for assessing the intensity, complementarity of trade between two countries and the potential for exporting Latvian goods to EU countries. The study identifies the countries and categories of goods where Latvian trade potentialto EU can be increased. The authors of the article propose criteria for determining possibility of increasing the export of various groups of goods. The paper may be of interest to all export transaction participants, including manufacturers, merchants, and professional associations. The export expansion assessment method applied by the authors may be adopted by exporting companies to identify groups of goods that have export growth reserves.