Latvian Bank Account

The Bank of Latvia as the central bank performs the following tasks:

• The Bank maintains price stability and, consequently, creates stable business environment, by establishing and implementing the right monetary policy. The main efficiency criteria of national monetary policy is providing favourable macroeconomic environment for growth of the national economy in the long term. In most cases, the Bank of Latvia follows monetary policy ensuring low inflation rate. Maintenance of a low and stable long-term inflation rate is the course declared by the majority of national central banks in other countries.
• The Bank of Latvia holds the exclusive right to issue the national currency, pursuant to the Law «On the Bank of Latvia». The Council of the Bank of Latvia determines the description of banknotes and coins, their numbering, registration and monetary backing, and establishes procedures for withdrawing banknotes and coins from circulation and for replacing damaged banknotes and coins.
• One of the main duties of the Bank of Latvia is to organize the effective functioning of the interbank payments and settlements system in Latvia, ensuring non-cash settlement between banks. Through the payment system the central bank can perform its main task — implementation of monetary policy. The Bank of Latvia organizes technical and administrative side of the system’s infrastructure consisting of the payment system and financial institutions ensures regulation, analyses and forecasts possible developments.

The Bank of Latvia is operating two systems used for inter-bank settlement in lats: the Electronic Clearing System (EKS) that replaced the paper-based clearing system on 17 November 1998, and the interbank euro payment system TARGET2-Latvija, launched in November 2007 as part of Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer System TARGET2.

• The Bank of Latvia on the regular basis collects, records and aggregates the financial information and the data of the national payment balance, and publishes the processed information and the statistics. The main publication is the Annual Report of the Bank of Latvia.

The central Bank of Latvia performs the function of financial agent for the Government; also, its functions are managing foreign assets and issuing licences to legal persons listed in the Latvian Register of Enterprises, except credit institutions, for the purchase and sale of foreign currency as a business activity.