Latvijas Banka is the representative of the Republic of Latvia in foreign central banks and international financial institutions. Latvijas Banka may participate in operations of other international financial and credit organisations consistent with its objectives and tasks.
Representation of Latvijas Banka in international organisations
In 2021, Latvijas Banka continued to represent Latvia's interests at meetings of the IMF Board of Governors and in the coordination of operational issues. Priorities of the IMF policy were mainly related to the developments in the global economy and the financial system. In 2021, the IMF focused particularly on the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the provision of the financial assistance to more than 90 countries in the world. The financial assistance instruments were improved for this purpose, including to reduce the burden of debt servicing costs for poor countries. The development of a comprehensive strategy was launched to support emerging market economies, given their already high debt levels.
Discussions also continued on IMF resources, challenges related to climate change and inequality.
Latvia's interests in the IMF were represented in the Nordic-Baltic Constituency that includes Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden. One Executive Director represented this constituency on the IMF Executive Board, with a total of 3.3% votes.
An employee of Latvijas Banka was appointed the new Adviser to the Executive Director of the Nordic-Baltic Constituency of the IMF in 2021 as the term of office of the former employee had expired.
In 2021, cooperation with the IMF, based on consultations under Article IV of the IMF Articles of Agreement, continued.
In 2021, Latvijas Banka continued its membership in the BIS. In the course of the year, Latvijas Banka was actively involved in the work of the Eurosystem "Innovation Forum" (Innov8). The Forum prepared the Eurosystem's proposals for the work programme of the BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH) and the procedure for recruiting staff and financing the operation of the Hub. With this preparation period coming to an end, the Eurosystem BISIH was opened in two locations (Frankfurt and Paris) at the end of the year. Within Innov8, Latvijas Banka will continue its participation in the development of a framework in the central bank innovation area.
At the beginning of the year, Latvijas Banka engaged in the work of the newly established BIS Innovation Network, in which an expert of Latvijas Banka participates in the High-Level Task Force on Central Bank Digital Currency.
Latvijas Banka has been a member of the Network for Greening the Financial System (Network for Greening the Financial System; NGFS) since 2020.
Cooperation between the central banks of the Nordic and Baltic countries also continued to be the case, including the discussion on topical issues in central banking. As part of the long-term cooperation between the central banks of the Baltic States, seminars and high-level meetings for experts were organised in Riga.