OREANDA-NEWS. November 12, 2010. As of today Latvijas Banka, in advance to euro introduction, ensures Electronic Clearing System (EKS) for euro payments in Europe - safe and effective infrastructure, which will be used by the system's participants for the everyday payments of their customers - businesses and consumers, reported the press-centre of Latvijas Banka.

Numerous businesses and consumers have already currently used this kind of cross-border payments. But as of euro introduction these payments will be at utmost importance for everyone. EKS is Latvijas Banka's payment system for handling its participants' - commercial banks, the Treasury and Latvijas Banka - customer payments. Already since 1 January 2008 there is opportunity to handle safe and efficient domestic customer payments at Latvijas Banka's EKS. Now it is available for customer payments within SEPA area.

To ensure interoperability with other infrastructures of the SEPA and reachability of the EKS participants, the EKS exchanges cross-border credit transfer messages with the Euro Banking Association system STEP2 via the SEPA Clearer, the system of Deutsche Bundesbank.

SEPA (single euro payments area) ensures all consumers, companies and other economic actors to make and receive also cashless euro payments, whether between or within national boundaries, under the same conditions, rights, and obligations, regardless of their geographical location. SEPA area is an area including the EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Monaco and EU overseas territories.

The Bank of Latvia has adhered to the European Payments Council SEPA credit transfer scheme, and by using EKS SEPA as of 9 November 2010 sends and receives SEPA credit transfers - therefore is SEPA compliant at "bank-to-bank" domain.

Additional information
Electronic clearing system (EKS) is the system developed by Latvijas Bankas experts, which ensures handling of large volume of customer payments among Latvian banks. At this system there are not settled separate payments, but there are handled net positions of banks against each other. For example, if bank A have to pay to bank B 5 million euro, but bank B to bank A - 4 million euro, the EKS system handles the value of 1 million from bank A to bank B. Besides the value, the system ensures the transfer of all payment information (account numbers, etc.)

The EKS in lats daily process 130,000 payments in value of 40 million lats. More information: http://www.bank.lv/eng/main/all/maknor/lmunsa/eks/.