Latvijas Banka represents the Republic of Latvia in a number of international financial institutions and works with foreign central banks. Latvijas Banka also participates in the operations of other international financial and credit organisations where this is consistent with its objectives and tasks.

 
 

In 2025, Latvijas Banka continued to represent Latvia's interests at the meetings of the IMF Board of Governors and participated in coordinating IMF operational issues.

Uncertainty and risks related to global fragmentation and protectionism increased sharply in early 2025. However, as the year progressed, global economic growth proved more resilient than initially expected. This was influenced by factors such as lower tariffs actually introduced and a strong increase in technological investment, particularly in the development of artificial intelligence in the US and Asia. The IMF expected global economic growth to remain weak and uncertainty to increase, while inflation continued to decline. The IMF urged Member States to restore fiscal sustainability by reducing debt burdens and building fiscal buffers, and also called for close monitoring of risks to financial stability and the implementation of structural reforms that would boost productivity and enhance growth. The IMF also stressed the importance of independent financial institutions, international cooperation, and open, rules-based trade.

In 2025, the IMF Executive Board approved new financing programmes for 10 Member States, amounting to 35.1 billion US dollars, including a new financing programme for Argentina, which is the IMF's largest borrower. The implementation of the programme for Ukraine approved in 2023 also continued. At the end of the year, Ukraine requested a new IMF programme, which was approved in February 2026.

Latvia's interests in the IMF are represented through the Nordic-Baltic Constituency, which consists of Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, and Sweden. One Executive Director represents this constituency on the IMF Executive Board with a total of 3.28% of the votes in 2025. From January 2023 to July 2026, the former Governor of Lietuvos bankas, Vitas Vasiliauskas, is the Executive Director of the Nordic-Baltic Constituency, representing the Baltic States. In 2025, the central banks of the Baltic States continued to coordinate cooperation between the central banks and Ministries of Finance of all the Nordic and Baltic countries on IMF issues, and to draft joint positions on items to be considered by the IMF Executive Board.

In 2025, Latvijas Banka continued to coordinate the involvement of the Latvian public and private institutions in the IMF within the framework of its surveillance mandate or the Article IV Consultation. The annual IMF report containing recommendations for Latvia was published in September.

Latvijas Banka continued its membership in the BIS in 2025. Latvijas Banka actively participated in the work of the BIS Innovation Network, and in the work of the Eurosystem Innovation Forum (Innov8).

Latvijas Banka continued to work with, exchange information with, and represent Latvia's interests in:

  • the European Forum of Deposit Insurers;
  • MONEYVAL;
  • the Group of Banking Supervisors from Central and Eastern European Countries;
  • the OECD;
  • IOSCO;
  • IAIS;
  • IOPS.

In addition to working in various EU and international institutions and organisations, Latvijas Banka also cooperated with the supervisory authorities, resolution authorities, and protection system institutions (guarantee funds) of other countries under bilateral and multilateral cooperation and information exchange agreements. Cooperation with supervisory and resolution colleges also played an important role in experience and information exchanges.

As is traditional, Latvijas Banka continued to maintain particularly close cooperation through the Nordic-Baltic cooperation forums on a wide range of issues regarding central bank functions, including by holding the presidency of the Macroprudential Forum of the Nordic and Baltic countries. Under bilateral cooperation, Latvijas Banka also shared its experience on issues in certain areas, for example, on preventing financial fraud with Suomen Pankki, on practices for calculating emissions related to cloud services and on educational activities concerning digital habits with Danmarks Nationalbank.

In the area of bilateral cooperation, Latvijas Banka also exchanged experience with central banks of other European countries, for example, with the Central Bank of Ireland on critical financial services and with Banco de Portugal on the incorporation of sustainability considerations into macroprudential policy.

In 2025, Latvijas Banka continued to share its experience on issues concerning the supervision of AML/CFTP with central banks and supervisory authorities of European countries, including through cooperation with partners from Austria, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, and Lithuania.

In order to promote the transfer of knowledge in the fields of finance and economics, Latvijas Banka’s experts participated in numerous development cooperation projects in 2025.

In 2025, within the framework of academic cooperation, experts from Latvijas Banka collaborated with the IMF's Vienna Institute by delivering training seminars on Latvia’s achievements in the area of AML/CFTP, as well as on the MONEYVAL evaluation process. They also addressed topics related to tax policy, health care, and social insurance, and presented their research findings, including the impact of Covid-19 support measures on Latvia’s labour market and businesses' performance indicators, as well as the effects of exports and EU-funded projects on businesses' productivity.

In 2025, Latvijas Banka launched a cooperation in development assistance training with the Centre of Excellence in Finance (Slovenia), which provides support for enhancing capacity in the financial field to sectoral ministries, central banks, and financial supervisory authorities in the countries of the Southeastern European region (primarily the Balkan countries, Moldova, and Ukraine). As part of this project, Latvijas Banka's experts shared their knowledge and experience in financial accounting and recordkeeping, macroprudential supervision, the resilience of payment services, and payment and fintech services.

Within the framework of bilateral technical assistance, Latvijas Banka prioritised support to Ukraine. In 2025, experience exchanges with experts from the National Bank of Ukraine focused on sustainability and related disclosure practices, human resources policy, and SREP methodology.

At the same time, Latvijas Banka's experts provided advice to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan on the supervision of pension systems and pension funds, the application of international accounting standards, and insurance-related matters.

 

Latvijas Banka in the Eurosystem and European Union institutions

Latvijas Banka as a member of the ESCB and the Eurosystem complies in its activities with the legislation of the Republic of Latvia and the EU, including the ECB legal acts, in accordance with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Statute of the ESCB and of the ECB.

In 2025, the Governor of Latvijas Banka participated in the work of the Governing Council and the General Council of the ECB, including setting the monetary policy of the Eurosystem and making decisions concerning the tasks of the Eurosystem and the ESCB.

The Deputy Governor of Latvijas Banka participated in the work of the Supervisory Board of the ECB. The Board ensures the execution of the ECB's tasks relating to the supervision of credit institutions and prepares draft decisions for submission to the Governing Council of the ECB under the non-objection procedure.

Representatives of Latvijas Banka also participated in the committees and working groups of the Eurosystem and the ESCB, addressing issues of monetary policy, market operations, financial stability, financial sector supervision, payment systems, euro cash and the digital euro, statistics, international relations, communications, sustainability, climate and innovative technologies, and more.

In 2025, Latvijas Banka actively participated in the work of the authorities that form the European System of Financial Supervision1The European System of Financial Supervision is the framework for financial supervision in the EU that has been in operation since 2011. The system consists of three European supervisory authorities (EBA, ESMA, EIOPA), the ESRB, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities, and the national supervisory authorities of EU Member States.
, representing Latvia and making decisions in the ESRB, which takes decisions on issues related to EU macroprudential policy, as well as in the Boards of Supervisors of the EBA, the ESMA, and the EIOPA. Additionally, Latvijas Banka continued its participation in the SRB. Experts from Latvijas Banka contributed to the work of the committees and working groups of these authorities.

On 1 July 2025, a new EU authority – the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) – commenced operations. It was established to strengthen the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism at the EU level, enhance the quality of supervision, and ensure the consistent application of AML/CFT rules across the EU. In 2028, AMLA will assume direct supervision of approximately 40 high-risk financial institutions, to be designated based on criteria set out in the regulatory framework and a harmonised EU-wide risk assessment methodology. Latvijas Banka has begun participating in the work of the AMLA Board, representing the interests of the financial sector and cooperating closely with the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Ministry of Finance. Latvijas Banka's experts contribute to the development of common supervisory standards through their participation in several AMLA working groups.

Representatives of Latvijas Banka also actively participated in the work of the committees and working groups of the EU Council, the EC, and Eurostat, addressing issues related to financial sector regulation, euro coins, economic forecasting, statistics, and other issues. They also provided support to the government in developing the national position on EU regulation.

Active work by the EU Council continued in the area of financial sector regulation, with provisional political agreements on legal acts being reached in the following areas:

  • Crisis Management and Deposit Insurance: an agreement on bank crisis management, early intervention measures, resolution conditions, and the financing of resolution actions;
  • Retail Investment Strategy: an agreement on the protection of retail investors, the transparency of investment services, and improved access to financial markets;
  • Third Payment Services Directive and Payment Services Regulation: an agreement on a new regulatory framework for payment services aimed at strengthening consumer protection, ensuring safer payments, and promoting financial innovation at the EU level.

At the same time, work continued on several financial sector legislative proposals for which no political agreement has yet been reached.

  • Digital euro: work continued on the development of the legal framework and the EU Council’s negotiating position, including the definition of the conditions for the issuance, circulation, and supervision of the digital euro;
  • Financial Data Access: discussions continued on the framework for access to financial data, data sharing, and balancing consumer data protection with the promotion of innovation;
  • Securitisation: discussions focused on promoting the development of the EU securitisation market and adapting the regulatory framework with a view to deepening capital markets.

With the launch of the next phase of regulatory development (the Savings and Investments Union agenda), new proposals in the area of financial services were also published at the end of 2025:

  • Market Integration and Supervision Package: strengthening the integration of capital markets and promoting supervisory convergence at the EU level;
  • Review of the regulatory framework for the Pan-European Personal Pension Product: further development of the European personal pension product and enhancement of its attractiveness;
  • Review of the regulatory framework for Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision: further development of the regulatory framework for occupational pension funds.

In 2025, significant attention was also devoted to the review and simplification of sustainability-related regulation, with a view to reducing the administrative burden and ensuring regulatory consistency in the financial sector.

In view of the EC's communication on the postponement or review of the adoption of certain delegated and implementing acts aimed at reducing the administrative burden and ensuring the proportionality of the regulatory framework – particularly in the areas of sustainable finance and capital market regulation – the timetable for the adoption of certain secondary legal acts in the financial sector was also revised in 2025.

In the Economic and Financial Committee of the EU Council and its sub-committees, representatives of Latvijas Banka regularly contributed to the preparation of decisions on EU economic development and financial stability, as well as to the shaping of the EU economic policy strategy and the coordination of international relations issues. In 2025, the Committee’s work focused primarily on issues related to enhancing EU competitiveness, mitigating risks arising from global fragmentation, and strengthening the role of the single currency. It also analysed the impact of climate, security, and geopolitical risks on the EU financial sector and developed policy recommendations in these respective areas. The Committee assessed the economic consequences of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, coordinated EU sanctions against Russia, and prepared opinions on financial support for Ukraine, including the use of frozen Russian assets and donor funding. It also issued a positive opinion on the adoption of the euro in Bulgaria and monitored the implementation of building blocks for the establishment of the Savings and Investments Union, while also assessing financial sector risks and the implementation of the regulatory framework in areas such as cybersecurity, financial literacy, the digital euro, and crypto-assets.