The Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) aims to create an integrated market for electronic payments in euro with no differences between national and cross-border payments. Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council or the so-called SEPA Migration End-Date Regulation establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro provides that as of 1 August 2014 payments throughout SEPA shall be made on the basis of the unique payment account identifier IBAN*.

The SEPA Migration End-Date Regulation lays down that as of 1 January 2014, within SEPA, including Latvia, the payment service provider no longer requires the  payment service user to indicate the BIC** of the payer or payee's payment service provider for national payments. A similar requirement regarding cross-border payment transactions is applicable from 1 February 2016. 

The structure of Latvia's IBAN is described in the international standard ISO 13616, for which SWIFT is the designated Registration Authority: http://www.swift.com/dsp/resources/documents/IBAN_Registry.pdf

For example:

BIC list

*IBAN - International Bank Account Number
**BIC - Business Identifier Code