The Bank of Latvia's interbank automated payment system SAMS functions as the core mechanism of the entire payment system, ensuring the settlement of large-value interbank payments and the Bank of Latvia's monetary policy operations, as well as the final settlement of other payment systems. SAMS is a real-time gross settlement system of the Bank of Latvia, which ensures interbank settlement in lats in real time. Real-time settlement significantly reduces liquidity and credit risk in the system, enabling the participants of the system to make immediate settlement and monitor their liquidity online. SAMS participants may monitor their account balances and payment flows in real time.

The settlement procedure for the Bank of Latvia's interbank automated payment system SAMS is stipulated by the "System rules for participation in SAMS".

The Bank of Latvia has prepared a Functional specification ( 576 KB) of the real time gross settlement system SAMS (in effect as of 23 November 2009). The functional specification comprises information on structure of the system, procedures of message processing and settlement, as well as examples of the messages and their explanation in accordance with SWIFT standards and SAMS requirements.