Information on the Euro introduction

Starting form 1 January, 2014, Latvia will join the eurozone – the euro will become a national currency of the country.

In this regard we would like to remind that the exchange of non-cash money in bank accounts will take place automatically on the night of 31 December 2013 to 1 January 2014 in accordance with the established exchange rate 0,702804.

Commercial banks, including Rietumu Bank, will exchange cash lats to euros in accordance with the established rate for six months from the euro introduction time – from 1 January and up to 30 June 2014. Cash lats will be exchanged to euros by the Bank of Latvia for an unlimited period of time.

Lat payment cards issued by Rietumu Bank will be automatically transferred to the euro on the night of 31 December to 1 January 2014. Funds in lats placed on the card account will be converted to euros at the established rate. Due to this, there will be a technical break in work of lats payment cards – from 11.55 p.m. 31 December until 4.00 a.m. 1 January (Latvian time, UTC +3). Rietumu Bank's payment cards in other currencies -- EUR, USD and GBP -- will operate without interruption.

On 31 December Rietumu Bank ATMs will operate in normal mode until 11:30 p.m.. Then a half-hour break will follow, when the configurations of the ATMs will be changed. The ATMs will resume their operation at 0:00 of 1 January 2014. From this moment single-currency (LVL) ATMs will dispense only euro banknotes and multi-currency ATMs will stop dispensing lat banknotes.
Payment orders for wire transfers in lats or exchange of sums in lats that exceed equivalent of 5 000 EUR will be accepted up to 1:00 p.m. of 30 December 2013. Exchange of smaller sums (in all currencies) will be executed until 12.00 p.m. 31 December.

Payment orders in lats will be accepted at Rietumu Bank ATMs until the end of 29 December (11:59 p.m.).

Internal payments in lats (between your Rietumu Bank accounts) will be executed via iRietumu until 8.00 p.m. 31 December; payment orders submitted to operations department will be executed until 3 p.m. 30 December.

Please, take this information into consideration when planning your operations with the Bank.

Further information can be obtained at the Bank’s Information Service, tel.: + 371 67025555 (round-the-clock).

Eleonora Gailisha
Mass Media and Public Relations
Phone: +371-67020506
Fax: +371-67020563
E-mail: [email protected]