As of October 2025, Latvijas Banka is the only central bank in Northern Europe offering the Instant Verification Service (IVS) at the Eurosystem level to payment service providers – banks and fintech companies – both in Latvia and across Europe. This secure solution helps payment service providers seamlessly comply with new EU instant payment regulations, while enhancing customer experience and reducing operational and reputational risks.
A new requirement across Europe
Since October 2025, all payment service providers in the euro area have been required to perform Verification of Payee (VoP) checks – verifying the payee’s name against the IBAN before executing any credit transfer. Latvijas Banka’s IVS enables this verification to be completed quickly, securely and among all payment service providers subject to the requirement – within just five seconds – confirming whether the payee’s name or ID matches the specified account number.
Why it matters
In Latvia alone, around 903,000 credit transfers are made each day. An incorrect IBAN or a fraudster-altered invoice can result in losses of thousands of euros for companies or individuals.
Jānis KatkovskisHead of Payment Systems Operations Division at Latvijas Banka"Payment security is the cornerstone of every financial institution’s reputation. With the IVS, we provide payment service providers with a fast, secure and compliant way to meet new EU requirements and protect their customers from fraud or error. The transition to the new services has been as smooth as possible. Financial institutions from 8 countries that have already chosen our service value Latvijas Banka’s expert support and practical guidance throughout the integration process."
Security and trust – the next step in Europe’s payment evolution
The IVS ensures that, before a credit transfer is executed, the payer’s payment service provider can verify within less than five seconds whether the payee’s name matches the specified IBAN. The result – "Match", "No match", "Close Match" or "Not Applicable" – is returned immediately before the payment authorization, enabling customers to make informed decisions and reducing the risk of fraud and human error.
Jānis KatkovskisHead of Payment Systems Operations Division at Latvijas Banka"Through the IVS, Latvijas Banka provides financial institutions with a reliable and efficient tool to strengthen payment security and mitigate fraud risks or errors. This service marks an important milestone in the development of the euro area’s payment infrastructure and contributes to the advancement of a safer financial ecosystem."
Smooth integration with expert support
Once internal adaptations by the payment service provider have been completed, integration with IVS is a straightforward process, for the most efficient IVS users taking just around a month to complete. Latvijas Banka provides expert support to ensure a smooth implementation for payment service providers.
Developed in line with the EPC VoP Scheme and the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2024/886, the IVS ensures secure data exchange between IVS users and all other payment service providers which have adhered to the EPC VoP Scheme. Latvijas Banka’s service offers three configuration options for responding payment service providers – routing only, routing with real-time matching, and routing with database-based matching – enabling institutions to select the integration model that best fits their technical infrastructure and operational needs.
Latvia – a leader in modern payments in the euro area
Latvijas Banka is among the euro area’s leaders in modern payments. The instant payment infrastructure maintained by the central bank has been operational since 28 August 2017, making Latvia the first euro area country to introduce this innovative financial service. More than eight years later, instant payments continue to be adopted across the entire euro area.
With the IVS now available at the Eurosystem level, Latvijas Banka further reinforces its leading role, becoming one of only two euro area central banks to provide verification of the payee’s name against the account number (IBAN) to payment service providers across Europe.
For more information
Payment service providers that already participate, or intend to participate, in the EPC VoP scheme and are interested in the IVS are invited to contact Latvijas Banka via e-mail