Commitments of the stakeholders
The SEPA project is currently one of the major consumer payment market's initiatives in Europe. Support and commitments of the stakeholders to use the SEPA products are crucial for the implementation of the SEPA project.
- Banks
- Public authorities
- State JSC "Latvijas Pasts"
- Payment processing providers
- Payment technologies providers
Market demand side
Consumers
Representing consumer interests, the Consumer Rights Protection Centre encourages provision of information to consumers and public in general with easily accessible, comprehensible and timely information about the SEPA products, their fees and costs.
Companies
The Latvian Merchant Association
Representing the interests of merchants, the Latvian Merchant Association commits to support the SEPA core products, to disseminate information obtained within the SEPA project to the companies of the respective branch and offer SEPA card payments. The opinion of the Latvian Merchant Association was approved by the Council decision No 6.1 on 25 March 2009.
In 2010, the merchants provided for the migration of terminals and cash-register systems to the requirements of the first card-to-terminal domain of the SEPA Cards Framework.
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The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia
Representing the interests of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia has been informed about the SEPA core products. In accordance with the decision of the meeting held on 27 February 2009, the above Committee has furnished information obtained within the SEPA project to the companies of the respective branch and, under other favourable conditions (mainly the fees) has encouraged them to use the SEPA core products.
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The Employers' Confederation of Latvia
The Employers' Confederation of Latvia represents 50 branches of economy and regional employers' organisations, as well as socially responsible enterprises, employing 33% of the entire employees of Latvia. In the SEPA project, the Employers' Confederation of Latvia has defined benefits to be derived by companies, thereby paying particular attention to the corporates.
For corporates, common standards will enable the implementation of a single payment processing within the Single Euro Payments Area, resulting in resource savings. A single payment format will be used to send and receive the euro payments. Value-added services, such as e-invoicing and e-reconciliation, will facilitate fully automated processing of all payment phases. It is planned that a single bank account is only needed for using the payment instruments of the Single Euro Payments Area. The handling of incoming and outgoing payments will be eased, where one single format is used for all payments. To benefit from the Single Euro Payments Area in terms of money and time, a changeover from the lats to the euro should be implemented within the shortest timeframe possible.
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Public authorities
- All state budget institutions have opened accounts with the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia subject to the Republic of Latvia laws and regulations. In terms of the number of accounts, the State Revenue Service ranks among the largest customers of the state budget institutions of the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia as it ensures collection of the government taxes, duties and other mandatory payments stipulated by the Republic of Latvia law. In terms of the number of payment orders, the State Social Insurance Agency is one of the major customers of the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia among the state budget institutions, as it ensures social security services and provision of the respective social benefit payments pursuant to the Republic of Latvia laws and regulations. Local governments have to open accounts with the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia subject to the requirements of the Republic of Latvia laws and regulations in order to receive the state budget funds and provide co-financing for investment projects and cover expenses related to one-off assignments. With the customers of the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia migrating to the uniform SEPA payments, the time frame for preparing payments in line with the SEPA format will be agreed with the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia.
- The Bank of Latvia supports the SEPA project in Latvia and as of 9 November 2010 as a SEPA product user sends and receives SEPA credit transfers.
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Market supply side
Banks
The banking sector of Latvia has committed to implement a euro payment offer compliant with the SEPA requirements by the end of 2010, and complete the SEPA project until the changeover to the euro in Latvia. More detailed information is available in the "SEPA Implementation Plan in the Banking Sector of Latvia" Version 1.0 approved by the Association of Latvian Commercial Banks on 29 May 2008. In 2010 the Association of Latvian Commercial Banks undertook to implement SEPA direct debit payments by the end of 2014.
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Public authorities
- To commence the execution of SEPA credit transfers and offer SEPA credit transfers to the customers of the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia, including the state budget institutions and local governments, the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia committed on 27 January 2009 to update its internal payment processing information systems according to the requirements for SEPA compliant EKS (the Bank of Latvia's Electronic Clearing System) subject to the timeframe of the EKS development plan. As of 9 November 2010 the Treasury sends and receives SEPA credit transfers by using EKS.
- By its Resolution No. 929/3 of 23 July 2009 the Board of the Bank of Latvia approved the Bank of Latvia SEPA Plan, which set an objective to describe the use of SEPA core products at the Bank of Latvia by offering SEPA credit transfers to its customers. Pursuant to the above Resolution and continuing support the SEPA project in Latvia, the Bank of Latvia as of 9 November 2010 as a SEPA product provider offers sending and receiving SEPA credit transfers by using EKS.
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State JSC "Latvijas Pasts"
State JSC "Latvijas Pasts" plans to start SEPA products implementation 12 months before euro introduction and to offer its customers SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debit payments as of euro introduction day in the Republic of Latvia.
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Payment processing providers
– On 19 February 2009, the Board of the Bank of Latvia supported a concept on elaboration of the Electronic Clearing System into a SEPA compliant payment system, including a commitment to implement the SEPA requirements' compliant Electronic Clearing System for handling the SEPA credit transfers by 12 November 2010. On 9 November 2010 the Bank of Latvia launched SEPA compliant Electronic Clearing System.
– JSC "Itella Information" has committed to modify its direct debit payment infrastructure, i.e. information and communication technology systems, legal documents, as well as other processes and procedures according to the SEPA requirements by 1 November 2010. In 2010 JSC "Itella Information" updated the term to 1 August 2011.
– Ltd. "First Data Latvia" commits, within a period of 18 months after the approval of the SEPA card framework standards, to ensure the solutions supporting the single specification for the domains "terminal-to-acquirer" and "acquirer-to-issuer". Ltd. "First Data Latvia" commits to ensure solutions in the second domain "terminal-to-acquirer" for the cards processing software by the end of 2011 and for the PIN devices by the end of 2012. As possible implementation time-line for the third domain "acquirer-to-issuer" has been mentioned 1 January 2015.
– "Swedbank" AS commits, within a period of 12 months after the approval of the SEPA card framework standards, to ensure their applicability in the domains "terminal-to-acquirer" and "acquirer-to-issuer". In 2010 "Swedbank" AS introduced the second domain "terminal-to-acquirer" and the third domain "acquirer-to-issuer" will be introduced according to the VISA and MasterCard infrastructures development plans.
– AS DnB NORD Banka has committed, within a period of 12 months after the approval of the SEPA card framework standards, to ensure their applicability in the domain "terminal-to-acquirer". In 2010 AS DnB NORD Banka introduced the second domain "terminal-to-acquirer".
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Payment technologies providers
Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association has supported and evaluated positively the implementation of FiDAViSta in Latvia, as it has allowed to facilitate interoperability of the systems significantly and is less time-consuming and has lead to a limited consumption of other resources. Upon updating the FiDAViSta standard, the coordination of the arrangements among banks, companies and information and communication technologies enterprises would be required, simultaneously also agreeing on the time frame for the transition process. Harmonised action of all SEPA project stakeholders would facilitate introduction of the new UNIFI (ISO 20022) XML standards.
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Last updated: 03.03.2011. 16:32
