Bank of Latvia

The Bank of Latvia, known locally as Latvijas Banka, is the national central bank for Latvia within the Eurosystem, headquartered in Riga in a building that formerly served as a branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire. Established on September 7, 1922 under the Law on the Establishment of the Bank of Latvia, it was suspended from 1940 to 1992 during Soviet occupation before resuming operations, issuing the Latvian ruble, the first and second Latvian lats, and finally handling the transition to the euro on January 1, 2014; it is wholly state-owned and serves as Latvia's national competent authority for European Banking Supervision, holding reserves of about 3.05 billion dollars.