Can a PISP licensed in another EU country initiate payments in Latvia?

Yes. PSD2 lets a payment institution authorised in one EU or EEA member state provide payment initiation services in another through passporting: you notify your home regulator, which informs Latvijas Banka. You do not need a second licence in Latvia, and your eIDAS certificates are valid across the EU whichever member state issued them.

Which Open Banking API standard do Latvian banks use?

Latvian banks implement Berlin Group NextGenPSD2. Because most are part of pan-Baltic groups, the same interface usually serves several countries, with local differences in account formats and authentication methods.

Are Open Banking payments in Latvia instant?

Payments are initiated as SEPA Instant Credit Transfers, which settle around the clock, usually within 10 seconds. Instant payments have been widely available at Latvian banks for years and are now mandatory across the euro area.

Coverage · Latvia

Open Banking payment initiation in Latvia

MVP Payments has live, direct connections to Latvian banks. Bring your own PISP licence and initiate payments in Latvia through one API — with every connection monitored around the clock.

Status: Live
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Payment rail: SEPA Instant Credit Transfer
Interface standard: Berlin Group NextGenPSD2
Regulator: Latvijas Banka
Payment services law: Law on Payment Services and Electronic Money

Talk to us How bring-your-own-licence works

How Open Banking payments work in Latvia

Latvia’s retail banking market is served by a handful of banks, most of them operating across all three Baltic states. They implement Berlin Group NextGenPSD2, typically on a group-wide platform, so a PISP covering Latvia is usually a short step from covering Lithuania and Estonia as well.

Latvijas Banka has supervised payment institutions directly since 2023, when the former Financial and Capital Market Commission was merged into the central bank. For a passporting PISP it is the host authority your home regulator notifies.

Latvia has used the euro since 2014. Payments settle as SEPA Instant Credit Transfers, and Latvian banks were among the first in the euro area to make instant payments broadly available — customers expect the money to arrive in seconds.

What you bring

Authorisation as a payment institution with payment initiation permission — from Latvijas Banka, or from another EU or EEA regulator with a passport notification into Latvia
eIDAS certificates issued to your firm by a qualified trust service provider — a QWAC to identify you to each bank and a QSealC to sign requests, both carrying the payment initiation role
Your merchants, your contracts and your compliance framework — the payments run under your licence

What MVP Payments runs

The Latvian bank connections

Built and maintained bank by bank, direct to the bank's own interface or the hub it uses — and identified to each bank by your certificates, not ours.

Monitoring, around the clock

Health re-evaluated every five minutes, a dedicated AI agent per bank, and engineers who release the fix. How monitoring works.

The payment journey

One API, a hosted payment page in 20 languages and your merchants' branding, and signed webhooks at every final status. Explore the platform.

Payment initiation in Latvia: common questions

Can a PISP licensed in another EU country initiate payments in Latvia?: Yes. PSD2 lets a payment institution authorised in one EU or EEA member state provide payment initiation services in another through passporting: you notify your home regulator, which informs Latvijas Banka. You do not need a second licence in Latvia, and your eIDAS certificates are valid across the EU whichever member state issued them.
Which Open Banking API standard do Latvian banks use?: Latvian banks implement Berlin Group NextGenPSD2. Because most are part of pan-Baltic groups, the same interface usually serves several countries, with local differences in account formats and authentication methods.
Are Open Banking payments in Latvia instant?: Payments are initiated as SEPA Instant Credit Transfers, which settle around the clock, usually within 10 seconds. Instant payments have been widely available at Latvian banks for years and are now mandatory across the euro area.