Updated on 15.03.2011.

Pursuant to Article 9 of the Law "On the Bank of Latvia", the Bank of Latvia promotes smooth operation of the payment systems in Latvia.

To this end, the Bank of Latvia performs:

• oversight of Latvia's payment systems,
• provides operation of the interbank payment systems,
• oversees the development of payment instruments in this country.

To ensure efficient and safe functioning of clearing and payment systems, the Bank of Latvia is authorised to approve regulations. The Bank of Latvia applies this method of influence only in the absence of other means within its power to ensure efficient and safe functioning of the clearing and payment systems.

To promote smooth operation of the payment systems, the Bank of Latvia also oversees securities settlement systems, as part of the executed payments relate to the securities settlement, and problems in securities settlement infrastructure can cause disruption in the operation of payment systems and affect the monetary policy implementation.

The Bank of Latvia oversees the systemically important payment and securities settlement systems that operate in the Republic of Latvia, thus reducing systemic risk in the entire national payment system.

On 13 January 2011, by Resolution No. 189/6 the Council of the Bank of Latvia approved "The Bank of Latvia Payment and Securities Settlement System policy", stipulating the role and main tasks of the Bank of Latvia in the oversight of payment and securities settlement systems.

A publication "Payment System Oversight Carried Out by the Bank of Latvia in 2010"  (676.00 Kb)    informing on the progress in payment system oversight has been published.

Bank of Latvia publishes the Payment Systems' Statistics on its website on a regular basis: the Bank of Latvia Interbank Payment System Statistics – at the beginning of each month, Latvia's Payment Statistics – semi-annually.

Information on statistics of Latvian securities settlement systems is published in the Statistical Data Warehouse of the European Central Bank.

The Bank of Latvia has prepared and submitted to the European Central Bank a review of the Latvian payment and securities systems. The review has been included in the "Payment and securities settlement systems in the European Union, Blue Book: Latvia" published by the European Central Bank. Information is compiled about the Bank of Latvia's inter-bank systems and about payment systems used by the Latvian Post Office, the Latvian Central Depository, payment card centers and other institutions, as well as about Latvian payment instruments. The ECB is publishing the statistical tables (Statistical Data Warehouse), including the statistics of the Latvian payment and securities settlement systems and renewing the data annually.