Today, the European Central Bank (ECB) issued a statement announcing that Latvijas Banka and Banco de Portugal will provide verification of the beneficiary's name/title against the specified beneficiary's account number (IBAN). Starting from October 2025, Latvijas Banka will also provide interested payment service providers from other European countries with access to its Instant Verification Service (IVS).
IVS will enable payment service providers to offer their customers – individuals, businesses, organisations – a service that allows them to verify the match between the payment recipient's first name and surname, title, or, in some cases, identifier, and the IBAN account number before issuing a payment order. This is an additional security feature to reduce the risks of fraud and human error in making payments. Starting from October 2025, offering such a service before each SEPA payment authorisation will be a mandatory requirement for payment service providers under the Instant Payments Regulation, while their customers retain the free choice to make or not make the payment after receiving the verification result.
Latvijas Banka is one of the euro area leaders in the field of modern payments; for example, the instant payment infrastructure maintained by the central bank started operating on 28 August 2017, making Latvia the first country in the euro area to provide this innovative financial service. Currently, more than seven years later, instant payments are being introduced across the entire euro area.
More information about the Instant Verification Service
An overview of Latvijas Banka's work in the field of payment innovation, including instant payments, the Instant Links Registry, instant payment requests, ZibLab++, and the Instant Verification Service.
Find out more at Eurosystem to offer verification of payee service