Latvijas Banka collects and compiles a wide range of statistical information in pursuit of its tasks. Latvijas Banka uses statistical information for performing financial and macroeconomic analyses, assessing financial stability, supervising financial market participants, and raising public awareness of developments in the financial sector and the economy. The ECB also uses statistical information produced by Latvijas Banka to compile the Eurosystem's monetary statistics and other euro area statistical data, and for other tasks.
In order to ensure decision making is data driven, it is essential to collect high-quality data of known origin from reliable data sources at the time required and in the manner and amount required, to use appropriate data processing tools, to create an environment that supports modern technologies, and to involve experts with knowledge and experience, and with skills in data processing technologies. By strengthening data management, we also support data-driven decision making.
Data management
In 2023, the foundations were laid for innovative and modern data management at Latvijas Banka. An assessment of data maturity has been launched, the centralised collection of data has been encouraged, and centralised tools are being phased in to replace some tools with narrower uses.
Latvijas Banka's statistical programmes
To provide transparent information on the activities planned in statistics, Latvijas Banka publishes its annual statistical programme and a medium-term statistical work programme for three years. Most of the tasks planned that were contained in the statistical programme were successfully fulfilled in 2023, with the exception of three tasks, which were postponed to 2024 for objective reasons. Two of these tasks are ESCB-level tasks of fact-finding and surveying costs for changes in the statistical requirements for insurance companies, and implementation of the new statistical requirements in investment fund statistics, and the third is the national task of expanding the publication of statistics on foreign exchange transactions. Some tasks in supervisory statistics will no longer be classified as tasks relating to statistics.
Development of statistical regulatory framework
The ESCB's complementary cost-benefit assessment on the Integrated Reporting Framework was carried out in the second quarter of 2023, and it also involved Latvian credit institutions, credit unions and other deposit-taking corporations. By total assets, 99% of Latvia's respondents participated in the survey.
The results of the complementary cost-benefit assessment have been summarised at the ESCB level and were published on the ECB's website on 3 April 2024, covering the topics of:
- expansion of the scope of future regulation to cover the country-specific requirements;
- additional functions for optimising the analytical value of the Integrated Reporting Framework;
- operational aspects of reporting and closer alignment of the Integrated Reporting Framework with the supervisory financial reporting (FINREP) requirements set by the EBA at an individual level.
To ease the statistical reporting burden on selected groups of reporting agents given their significance in their segment of the economy, the Regulation of Latvijas Banka governing the compilation and submission of statistical data on the financial position (1-FP) was amended. These changes reduce significantly the range of statistical data that needs to be submitted by financial corporations that are not supervised by Latvijas Banka and whose economic activity is other than lending.
Development of new experimental statistics
Latvijas Banka participated in the compilation of the Distributional Wealth Accounts produced by the ECB and in the preparation of their publication. These accounts provide information on the distribution of household wealth and are consistent with the information on the total wealth of the household sector provided in the National Accounts. They also reflect the link between the data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey and data from the financial and non-financial accounts.
Launch of the new wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey
Latvijas Banka launched the 2023–2025 Household Finance and Consumption Survey. This is now the fourth survey of its kind in Latvia, and in accordance with the ECB requirements, it is run every three years to obtain data on the real and financial assets, liabilities, income and consumption of households. In cooperation with the CSB, a sample of respondents was selected for the survey by using the panel approach, as this provides more complete information on changes in the financial situation and consumption of households over the longer term. In the panel approach, the sample includes the households that participated in the previous survey. The sampled households were interviewed in autumn 2023.
Improvement of the used data sources
The use of a new data source – the statistical data on the financial position of financial vehicle corporations – was launched in 2023 in order to:
- prepare statistics on financial vehicle corporations, the balance of payments, the international
- investment position, the external debt and the financial accounts;
- identify and assess the risks posed to Latvia's financial system by securitisation activities;
- analyse dynamic changes in the
Publication of statistical information
Latvijas Banka continued to provide a wide range of data users with statistical information, both by transmitting statistical data to direct data users on a regular basis and by publishing statistical data in its regular publications and on its website, including the statistical database INTS. The statistical data produced by Latvijas Banka were also published in ECB publications and the Statistical Data Warehouse, and in IMF publications and within the framework of the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus (SDDS Plus). Latvijas Banka continued to perform the tasks of the coordinating institution in Latvia within the framework of the SDDS Plus.
The range of interest rate statistics, which covers monetary financial institutions and is published in Latvijas Banka's statistical database INTS, was expanded in 2023, with additional data on the interest rates on various types of loans and deposits by sector without any indication of their maturity.
Financial soundness indicators for non-financial corporations and the expanded banking sector started to be provided, ensuring that an expanded range of indicators on the banking sector was published.
Credit Register
Latvijas Banka ensures the operation of the Credit Register, accumulating data on the loans and guarantees provided to natural and legal persons. The Credit Register provides the information needed for Latvijas Banka to perform its tasks, and gives public institutions an additional way to receive the information that they need for their legally mandated tasks.
At the end of 2023, the Credit Register held data on 4.7 million obligations, covering outstanding obligations and those that have been fulfilled and are used for the purpose of assessing creditworthiness. These data covered 1.2 million borrowers and guarantors for borrowers from 81 market participants, and the actual outstanding amount of the obligations totalled 21.8 billion euro and the off-balance sheet amount of the obligations totalled 4.7 billion euro. The Credit Register data on loans granted to legal persons are also provided to the ECB within the framework of the AnaCredit statistics.
Latvijas Banka allows anybody to get a copy of the information held on them in the Credit Register, including on the electronic service website https://manidati.kreg.lv, free of charge. The number of requests serviced on this website reached 44 thousand.
Chart 1. Dynamics of the requests received by the Credit Register
(number)
In 2023, Credit Register participants submitted 13.6 million requests to the Credit Register to use data from the Credit Register for assessing the creditworthiness of current or potential borrowers and guarantors for borrowers.
Chart 2. Dynamics of the requests made by participants
(number; millions)
So that it could conduct additional analysis on the contribution of financial system participants to sustainability, Latvijas Banka expanded the linking of data in the Credit Register with data from other data sources (see the section "Sustainability").
