SEPA in Latvia

On 18 December 2007, Oskars Spurdziņš, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Latvia, in his reply to Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services, appointed the Money and Payment Systems Working Group (MPSWG) as the national SEPA Steering Committee under the Euro Project auspices. Taking into consideration the current task of developing Latvia's National SEPA Plan, the MPSWG established the National SEPA Working Group on 28 October 2008. During the meeting the MPSWG decided on the composition of the Working Group and its tasks. The National SEPA Working Group held its first meeting on 14 November 2008. The meeting was mostly informative; nevertheless, the National SEPA Working Group took decisions about the structure of the National SEPA Plan and further organisational cooperation.

In the course of 2009, the National SEPA Working Group has been mainly working on the development of Latvia's National SEPA Plan, holding consultations with the stakeholders of the SEPA project and National SEPA Working Group. On 14 December 2009, the MPSWG approved Latvia's National SEPA Plan, Version 1.0 and high level SEPA implementation measures to be incorporated into Annex 1 "Action Plan for Introduction of the Single European Currency in Latvia" to Latvia's National Euro Changeover Plan.

Latvia's National SEPA Plan describes all stakeholders' roles in the SEPA project and their tasks as well as provides a timeline for putting SEPA payments on the Latvian payments market and presents more comprehensive information about SEPA payments, SEPA infrastructures, SEPA legal framework and standards as well as SEPA communication plan.

The summary of Latvia's National SEPA Plan ( 81 KB) focuses on the following issues: support extended by all SEPA project stakeholders and their public commitments regarding the implementation of SEPA project  in Latvia.

Latvia's National SEPA Plan, Version 1.0 (full document,  648 KB).

In 2010, the National SEPA Working Group continues to coordinate the SEPA Project, including the organising SEPA communication experts' meetings and drafting of a communication plan which is to be harmonised with the Euro Project's communication developments.

In 2010 the SEPA Cards Framework Sub-Group commenced its work. The overall implementation of standards in the customer–to–bank and bank–to–customer domains and activities regarding SEPA e-services will continue in Latvia. Currently each institution and company involved in SEPA Project proceeds with the respective preparatory work in line with the individual SEPA plans.

At the start of 2010, the organisational chart of the SEPA project was as follows.

Eiro Project Money and Payment Systems Working Group	SEPA Steering Committee
National SEPA Working Group	SEPA Coordination Commitee

Market Demand Side Consumers Latvian Consumer Rights Protection Centre Companies Latvian Merchant Association Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts Consultative Committee Employers' Confederation of Latvia Public Authorities Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia Bank of Latvia Treasury of the Republic of Latvia

Market Supply Side Banks Association of Latvian Commercial Banks State JSC "Latvijas Pasts" Payment processing providers Ltd "First Data Latvia" JSC "Itella Information" Payment technologies providers Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association

Association of Latvian Commercial Banks SEPA Working Group

SEPA Cards Framework Sub-Group

SEPA Communication Experts' Meetings

Payment Cards Committee of the Association of Latvian Commercial Banks Latvian Merchant Association Ltd "First Data Latvia"

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