Digital euro project
Latvijas Banka continues to take an active part in the digital euro project that is being run by the ECB in cooperation with the national central banks of the euro area. In 2025, the first part of the preparatory stage for the digital euro concluded, and a decision was made on further progress of this project, namely, to start the second part of the preparatory stage. This stage is to be implemented by the autumn of 2027, and it will include the development of infrastructure for the digital euro and preparations for the testing of payments using the digital euro.
In 2025, Latvijas Banka especially focussed on direct communication with market participants – commercial banks and merchants – to explain the progress of the digital euro project and to gain insights in the specifics and interests of the Latvian market. It continued to support the Ministry of Finance in drafting the framework for the digital euro. At the end of 2025, the European Council agreed on a common position on this matter. Additionally, to support the progress of this regulation at the European Parliament, meetings with Latvian MEPs were held to explain the nature and need for the digital euro project. Communication activities will continue in 2026 after receiving positive feedback.
In order to enhance the public understanding and awareness of the rationale and progress of the digital euro project, Latvijas Banka issued several publications in 2025 in addition to sharing ECB communication materials on social media. In 2025, representatives of Latvijas Banka participated in conferences and events organised by universities, where they shared information on the digital euro project and its objectives.
Operation of the EKS
The EKS system developed and maintained by Latvijas Banka continued to ensure customer payments in euro in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) from an account in one financial institution to an account in another financial institution via the instant payment service and the clearing service. The instant payment service guarantees the execution of transactions within seconds, operating 24/7. Meanwhile, the clearing service processes payments on business days, ensuring that funds are transferred to the recipient within a few hours.
Several non-bank financial institutions were granted access to the payment systems of Latvijas Banka – ten payment institutions and electronic money institutions started participating in the EKS system in 2025. At the end of 2025, 11 credit institutions, 10 payment institutions and electronic money institutions, the Treasury, and Latvijas Banka directly participated in the EKS system. All members of the EKS used both the clearing service and the instant payment service.
Chart 1. Volume and value of payments processed in the EKS system in 2025
139.0 million SEPA credit transfers totalling 225.6 billion euro were executed in the EKS system (the instant payment service and the clearing service combined). The volume of payments executed in the EKS increased by 10.0% over the year and the value by 11.7%.
Throughout the year, the volume of instant payments processed via the instant payment service increased 1.3 times, with some participants making more than 90% of their payments as instant payments. A total of 92.5 million instant payments in the amount of 54.5 billion euro were processed, with up to 490 thousand instant payments processed on some days. The availability of instant payment service was 100%.
The EKS clearing service, the availability of which was 100% in 2025, processed an average of 178 thousand customer SEPA credit transfers in the amount of 664 million euro per day. In total, 45.4 million payments totalling 169.3 billion euro were processed.
Instant Links Proxy Register
Latvijas Banka continued to ensure the operation of the Instant Links Proxy Register, enabling the customers of several Latvian and Estonian banks to execute instant payments and other transactions with greater convenience by simply entering the payee's mobile phone number in the payment order.
At the end of 2025, a total of 758 thousand instant links had been registered with the Instant Links Proxy Registry (100% availability), representing a 5% increase compared to the end of the previous year. During the year, 16.9 million requests were processed by the Instant Links Registry. 60% of instant links were registered for customers of Latvian banks and 40% for those of Estonian banks.
Instant Verification Service
In October of 2025, Latvijas Banka introduced the Instant Verification Service that allows payment service providers to verify the name and account number (IBAN) of the payee according to the instant payments regulation. At the level of the Eurosystem, this service is provided by Latvijas Banka and the central bank of Portugal.
Payment service providers from nine EU Member States have started using the Instant Verification Service. In 2025, the Instant Verification Service processed 34.8 million requests, of which 29.9 million were successful.
Chart 2. Number of requests processed by the Instant Verification Service in 2025 (in million)
Operation of TARGET-Latvija
In 2025, Latvijas Banka continued to ensure the operation of the TARGET-Latvija system. It is a component system of TARGET, the third largest payment system in the world.
The availability of TARGET, including that of TARGET-Latvija, was 99.84% in 2025. TARGET2-Latvija processed 565 payments per day worth 1.3 billion euro on average.
Chart 3. Volume and value of payments executed in the TARGET-Latvija system in 2025
Latvijas Banka also provided payment services in euro to institutions with settlement accounts opened with Latvijas Banka outside of the TARGET-Latvija system, i.e. the Treasury, Latvian, foreign, and international financial institutions. In 2025, payments of such institutions executed by Latvijas Banka amounted to EUR 1.7 billion.
Oversight of the payment system
In 2025, Latvijas Banka performed day-to-day oversight of the EKS, analysing the system's technical and operational functions, compiling statistical data on it, and making sure that the interbank payment environment in Latvia is secure and efficient.
Latvijas Banka regularly compiled and analysed payment data on a semi-annual basis regarding payments made by customers of Latvia's payment service providers, enabling it to oversee the evolution of payment instruments used in Latvia. Payment data were compiled in compliance with a uniform ECB statistical methodology.
Oversight of financial instrument settlement systems
In cooperation with the central banks of Estonia, Lithuania, and Iceland, Latvijas Banka coordinated the assessment of depositary Nasdaq CSD SE during the cybersecurity survey of the Eurosystem's financial markets infrastructure and concluded that Nasdaq CSD SE has a high cybersecurity level.
An assessment report was prepared on the compliance of Nasdaq CSD SE with the Central securities depositories regulation in areas of importance for the Eurosystem. Having made no new findings, the Eurosystem issued a positive opinion on the operation of the securities settlement systems maintained by Nasdaq CSD SE.