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Bank of Latvia


UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

Resolution No. 102/4 of
the Council of the Bank of Latvia

Riga, May 15, 2003

ON APPROVING THE "REGULATION FOR THE USE OF THE IBAN"

The Council of the Bank of Latvia  r e s o l v e s:

1 To approve the "Regulation for the Use of the IBAN" (appended).

2 To establish that the Resolution shall take effect on January 1, 2004, except Paragraph 4.2 of the regulation referred to in Paragraph 1 hereof shall take effect on January 1, 2005.

Governor of the Bank of Latvia I. Rimsevics

APPROVED
by the Bank of Latvia's Council
Resolution No. 102/4 
of May 15, 2003

I. Rimsevics
Governor of the Bank of Latvia

REGULATION FOR THE USE OF THE IBAN

The "Regulation for the Use of the IBAN" (hereinafter, "the regulation") shall govern the structure of the international bank account number IBAN provided by institutions registered in the Republic of Latvia and stipulate the procedure for providing, validating and using it. The regulation has been developed in compliance with the Republic of Latvia Law "On the Bank of Latvia".


1. TERMS USED IN THIS REGULATION

1.1 IBAN (International Bank Account Number) - an international bank account number that is provided to a customer by a bank in accordance with the international standard ISO 13616:1997 set by the European Committee for Banking Standards and The International Organization for Standardization.

1.2 A Latvian IBAN - IBAN that are provided by institutions registered in the Republic of Latvia as well as those provided by institutions not registered in the Republic of Latvia but complying with the IBAN structure described in this regulation.

1.3 The use of other terms shall correspond to that in the "Regulation for Credit Transfers".


2. GENERAL PROVISIONS

2.1 This regulation establishes the minimum requirements that an institution registered in the Republic of Latvia shall observe in regard to the procedure for providing, validating and using a Latvian IBAN.

2.2 This regulation shall not void or restrict other rights and obligations of an institution, and it shall not stipulate the structure of other countries' IBAN or the procedure for using and validating them.

2.3 This regulation shall be binding upon institutions registered in the Republic of Latvia that open and service customer accounts funds wherein are used for domestic and cross-border payments in lats and foreign currency.


3. STRUCTURE OF LATVIA'S IBAN

3.1 A Latvian IBAN shall consist of 21 symbols, where successively:
3.1.1 2 letters - the code of the Republic of Latvia, "LV", in accordance with the international standard ISO 3166 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions";
3.1.2 2 numbers - check digits in accordance with the calculation method MOD 97-10 (Appendix 1) referred to in the international standard ISO 7064 "Information Technology - Security techniques - Check character systems";
3.1.3 4 letters - the first four letters of a bank's BIC (Bank Identifier Code) in accordance with the international standard ISO 9362 "Bank Identifier Codes";
3.1.4 13 characters - the customer account number.

3.2 Only Roman alphabet capital letters and Arabic numerals shall be used in a Latvian IBAN.

3.3 In electronic payment documents a Latvian IBAN shall not contain separators or blank characters.

3.4 To minimize the possibility of making errors when indicating a Latvian IBAN in payment documents prepared in a paper form as well as when the account number has to be entered manually by the customer, each four symbols shall be separated by a blank character.


4. PRINCIPLES FOR USING A LATVIAN IBAN AND THE PROCEDURE FOR ITS VALIDATION

4.1 An institution shall communicate to each of its customers the Latvian IBAN provided to him/her, indicating it in the account statement.

4.2 In customer payments that involve only institutions registered in the Republic of Latvia and stipulate crediting an account of the beneficiary, an institution shall accept only those payment documents which contain the IBAN of the beneficiary. A payment order that does not contain a Latvian IBAN shall be rejected in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Bank of Latvia's "Regulation for Credit Transfers".

4.3 Upon accepting a customer payment document that bears an indication of the beneficiary’s Latvian IBAN, an institution shall ascertain that the Latvian IBAN has the appropriate structure and that the check digits are correct.

4.4 Where a Latvian IBAN indicated in the payment order does not conform with the structure or the indicated check digits are incorrect, an institution shall reject such a payment order in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Bank of Latvia's "Regulation for Credit Transfers".

4.5 Upon accepting a customer payment document that bears a Latvian IBAN existing at the receiving institution, shall be entitled to credit the account of the beneficiary on the sole basis of the Latvian IBAN indicated.


5. TRANSITION PROVISIONS

5.1 An institution shall begin meeting the requirements referred to in Paragraph 4.1 not later than on January 1, 2005, but, insofar as the accounts involved in cross-border payments in euro within the framework of the European Union are concerned, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Regulation "On Cross-Border Payments in Euro" of the European Parliament and the Council.


6. INFORMATIVE REFERENCE TO THE LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

6.1 The Regulation has been developed in compliance with the requirements of the Regulation No. 2560/2001 "On Cross-Border Payments in Euro" of the European Parliament and the Council regarding the use of the IBAN.