Cybersecurity and readiness for crisis situations of the payment system TARGET2-Latvija will be improved

RIGA - The Council of the Bank of Latvia approved amendments to the "Procedure for Participation in TARGET2-Latvija", thereby enhancing the cybersecurity and readiness for crisis situations of this interbank euro payment system, LETA learned from the bank.

The amendments approved by the Council of the Bank of Latvia today were introduced to implement the guideline of the European Central Bank on improvement of TARGET2, the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system, of October 4, 2019.

The Bank of Latvia organizes and maintains the payment system infrastructure in Latvia, including two fully automated payment systems helping to ensure interbank settlements in euro. TARGET2-Latvija is an interbank euro payment system, a component of the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System TARGET2. The other system is the EKS, the electronic clearing system of Latvijas Banka, used for the processing of retail payments and also providing the innovative instant payments infrastructure. 

The amendments will enhance the cybersecurity of TARGET2-Latvija by stipulating that the system participants have to comply with the TARGET2 self-certification requirements and adhere to the TARGET2 network service provider's endpoint security requirements. Also, several measures have been introduced to improve the operation of TARGET2-Latvija and actions of its participants with respect to payment execution in contingency situations, e.g. there is an opportunity for participants themselves to submit payment orders for contingency processing in TARGET2 as a contingency solution: the latter will replace the current Contingency Module. The regulation for informing Latvijas Banka on crisis prevention and management measures by TARGET2-Latvija participants has also been improved. 

The amendments will take effect on November 17, 2019.

TARGET2-Latvija processed 366,000 payments totalling EUR 144.7 billion in the first nine months of 2019 or on average 1,900 payments totalling EUR 757.8 million per day.