International payment

International payments via Swedbank Internet banking

International payments via Swedbank Internet banking is a convenient and quick way of transferring funds in different currencies to international beneficiaries.

Make a payment

Payments via Internet banking in 25 most used currencies in Latvia
Special conditions for payments within Swedbank Group
Options to choose the type of payment proceeding: economical, standard, express
Copies of SWIFT, ISO, or SEPA messages (international format payment order confirmation) are available in Internet banking

According to the law of the country of the respective beneficiary bank and common market practices, for proceeding incoming payments the bank is authorized to credit the transferred amount into the beneficiary's account according to the account number indicated in the payment order. The name of the beneficiary in such case may not be taken into account by the bank.
It means that it is very important to fill in all the beneficiary details correctly, because in case of an error the funds may be credited to another person. Swedbank will do its best to help our customer and return the funds to his Swedbank account, however, the bank's rights are limited when it comes to returning payments.
If you are not sure about how to fill in an international payment order or if you are doing it for the first time, we would like to offer you a consultation by phone, just call Swedbank customer service 67 444 444.

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) denotes a single euro payments' area in which national and cross-border payments are harmonised. SEPA payments are also known as European payments and since we have acceded to the Single Euro Payments Area, we offer for our customers to effect euro payments in a rapid, sure and efficient manner without limitations on the transfer amount to all the EU member states as well as to United Kingdom, Andorra, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland and Vatican (Holy See).

The fee charged for these payments is the same as for domestic euro payments (payments in EUR effected in Latvia within its territory).

In order to perform a European payment, your payments must comply with the following requirements:

beneficiary's account should be specified according to IBAN format (without any spaces);
destination of the payment must be within the EU or United Kingdom, Andorra, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland and Vatican (Holy See);
payment type - economy or express;
payer shall pay only the fee established by his or her bank (fees are shared).

In case a payment does not contain any of the details specified above, it is effected as ordinary International payment for a corresponding fee, and intermediary bank and beneficiary bank are entitled to charge an additional fee for processing of such payment.

Introduction of SEPA enhances standardisation, automation of transfers and reduction in costs both for the customers and banks.

Procedure of preparing payment orders in CNY (Chinese renminbi yuan)

According to Chinese Republic law International payments in CNY are not allowed from/to private persons.

International payments in CNY between Companies are allowed only for Chinese Companies which have local license to receive international payments in CNY.

Bank has the right (as per correspondent bank requests) to require and customer has liability provide to bank export-import documents or other trade documentation.

CNY payments mandatory requirements:

Beneficiary’s bank name, address and branch name.
Beneficiary’s bank (branch) BIC (SWIFT code).
Beneficiary’s bank’s branch 12-digit code – CNAPS number (CN).

Example:

Beneficiary’s bank: CNxxxxxxxxxxxx, BANK OF CHINA, NO.1 FUXINGMEINEI ST. XICHEN DISTRICT, BEIJING

Beneficiary’s full name and address.
Payment details – payment details and business category codeword which you can choose from attached link.

Example:

Payment details: /GOD/ payment for clothes, invoice No. 123, contract No.5 etc.
If mandatory details are missing payment will be cancelled.

Procedure of preparing payment orders in INR (Indian rupees)

To avoid delays in effecting payments in Indian rupees (INR), the following information must be indicated in the payment order:

Beneficiary (full name of the person or company name), beneficiary’s account number, address and, preferably, beneficiary’s phone number;
Beneficiary’s bank, including the full name and address of the branch of the beneficiary’s bank;
Beneficiary bank’s SWIFT code;
It’s obligatory to indicate the bank’s IFSC code (11-character code identifying the beneficiary bank) in the purpose of the payment;
The purpose of the payment may not contain the word “loan”.

Procedure of preparing payment orders in Israeli shekels (ILS)

To avoid delays in effecting payments in Israeli shekels (ILS), the following information must be indicated in the payment order:

Beneficiary (full name of the person or company name);
Beneficiary bank’s SWIFT code;
It’s obligatory to indicate the beneficiary's account number in IBAN format (23 digit number).

Standard payment fields

Name, surname or company's name of the beneficiary;
Beneficiary's personal ID or company's legal ID;
Beneficiary's address;
Beneficiary's account number in IBAN format;
Beneficiary bank's SWIFT code;
Beneficiary bank's name;
Respective payment details.
Read more about possible international payment order's fields
Additional requirements regarding payments involving Ukraine

Useful links

Most frequently used national clearing codes of foreign banks

When filling in an international payment order, indicate correct details on the beneficiary's bank and intermediary bank.

Depending on the currency and the beneficiary's country, it is advisable to note the following specifics of the transfer to ensure a quality performance of the payment order.

Currency	Country of destination	Necessary data
USD	USA	ABA ROUTING or FW code (9 digit code- to be indicated in the field of beneficiary bank name); name of beneficiary's bank; city/country of beneficiary's bank; SWIFT code (if ABA ROUTING or FW code not mentioned).
USD	Any other country (Germany, UK, Russia, etc.)	Name of beneficiary's bank; city/ country of beneficiary's bank; SWIFT code - if known, consists of 8 or 11 characters, out of which the first 6 characters are always letters, e.g.: CBVILT2X, HABAEE2X, BKTRUS33; Name of correspondent bank SWIFT code or correspondent account of correspondent bank. Intermediary bank is usually one of the U.S. banks, but there may be exceptions.
EUR	Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France (including French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion), Greece, Estonia, Italy, Ireland, Iceland, Cyprus, Latvia, United Kingdom (including Gibraltar), Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Vatican (Holy See), Sweden	IBAN account.
GBP	United Kingdom	SORT CODE - 6 digit code to be indicated in the field of beneficiary bank name; SWIFT code (if SORT CODE code not mentioned); Name of beneficiary's bank; Address, city of beneficiary's bank.
All	Canada	SWIFT code; Name of beneficiary's bank; Beneficiary name; Beneficiary account number. It is obligatory to indicate TRANSIT NUMBER (5 figures) before beneficiary account number; Beneficiary address.

General information about financial sanctions

Sanctions are restrictive non-military measures which aim is to preserve the international peace and security, as well as respect for human rights. They are imposed by multilateral organisations, such as United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) or by individual countries (e.g. United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (UK)). International sanctions may be imposed against entire states, as well as natural and legal persons, who violate the human rights, commit ethnical, territorial conflicts, support terrorism, violate other international norms and principles.

International Sanctions take various forms based on their purpose objective (e.g. to prevent armed conflict, counter terrorism). They can be individual (e.g. travel ban, asset freeze), target goods and services (e.g. arms embargoes or proliferation-related goods, dual-use goods, luxury goods, etc.), can be focused on core economic sectors (e.g. oil or financial sectors, goods which could contribute in particular to the enhancement of country's industrial capacities) or be comprehensive targeting entire country (e.g. North Korea).

Swedbank implements international and national Financial Sanctions based on Law on International Sanctions and National Sanctions of the Republic of Latvia. It has to be pointed out that depending on the countries where the financial institutions operate, the lists of sanctions which the financial institutions follow could slightly differ.

UN. All UN members are obliged to accept and carry out Resolutions passed by UN Security Council.

Link to UN Security Council sanctions regimes: https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/information
EU. These are implemented through EU Council Regulations and have direct effect in all member states.

Link to EU sanctions regimes (there is a search function): https://www.sanctionsmap.eu/#/main
Based on the Swedbank Policy on Financial sanctions, Swedbank implements relevant U.S. and UK financial sanctions.. U.S. Financial Sanctions are imposed by U.S. President Executive Orders and implemented by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

By following U.S. Financial Sanctions, the Bank is being able to keep and maintain relations with U.S. banks and provide payments and other products/services in USD currency to its customers.

Link to U.S. OFAC sanctions regimes: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx

Link to U.S. OFAC search tool: https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/

UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, is the authority for the implementation of financial sanctions in the UK.

By following UK Financial Sanctions, the Bank is being able to keep and maintain relations with UK banks, provide payments and other products/services in GBP currency to its customers.

Link to UK sanctions regimes: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-sanctions-regime-specific-consolidated-lists-and-releases

Additionally, Swedbank considers correspondent bank requirements as well as its own internal regulations. Therefore, Swedbank will not engage in any actions that directly or indirectly circumvent the Financial Sanctions prohibitions, correspondent bank requirements or Swedbank Policy on financial sanctions.

Below are provided major types of Financial Sanctions implemented within Swedbank:

Targeted asset freezes. Swedbank has an obligation to freeze all financial resources and financial instruments owned, held or controlled by subjects of EU, UN and LV financial sanctions and not to allow making funds available to such persons. In case of U.S. and UK imposed sanctions Swedbank will reject transaction or refrain from provision of any products/ services related.
Arms embargoes/ restrictions on dual-use goods and technology for military purposes (Defence sector). Swedbank is obliged not to participate in provision of financial assistance related to mentioned goods or related services.
Core economic sector sanctions (Financial, Energy sectors. Swedbank will not provide any financial services restricted (e.g. loans, credits, dealings in financial instruments) as well as will not participate in any transactions related to prohibited activities (e.g. restrictions on provision, exportation, or reexportation of goods/services or technology in support of exploration or production for deepwater, Arctic offshore, or shale projects that have the potential to produce oil).

It is important to mention that the asset freeze and some sectoral restrictions are also applicable to entities that are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a designated person. Although those entities may not be designated and included into sanctions lists the same Financial Sanctions are applicable for them and needed to be implemented by Swedbank.

EU imposed International Sanctions (including implemented UN sanctions) apply within the territory of EU and to all EU persons inside or outside the territory of EU. Thus, both financial institutions and their customers are legally responsible for complying with the EU sanctions and have the obligation to inform the competent authorities on the cases they know or suspect transactions with sanctioned entities.

Each Customer has to assess potential International Sanctions’ risks when involving themselves in business transactions. International Sanctions are generally widely publicised, and Customers, especially operating internationally, have to understand and take action regarding International Sanctions (not only Financial Sanctions) that might be relevant for them. Therefore, customers have to consider business activities which could be exposed to International Sanctions and take appropriate risk mitigation steps.

The information provided above is not all-embracing, and customers are advised to consult responsible authorities or should seek independent legal advice in case of any questions related to implementation of sanctions.

Based on decisions adopted by Swedbank and terms and conditions of Swedbank's correspondent banks, Swedbank has the right not to execute payments (incl. crediting of incoming payments) in any currencies related to following prohibited countries and territories:

Iran;
Syria;
North Korea;
Crimea, Sevastopol

Swedbank may also hold the customer’s payment in order to investigate whether the payment is not posing sanctions risk and is in line with Swedbank internal decisionsand correspondent banks’ risk appetite to/from any country/region where embargoes, other restrictive measures are imposed or to/from other high-risk countries/ regions. The execution of stopped payments may be delayed and customers may be asked to provide additional information about their transactions as a consequence of such investigation.

List of countries or regions which are subject to International sanctions or to which Swedbank may restrict payments (this list is not exhaustive, as International sanctions may be withdrawn or new ones introduced, and their scope may change):

Cuba;
Iraq;
Myanmar (Burma);
Libya;
Sudan and South Sudan;
Yemen;
Somalia;
Transnistria region;
Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions
Afghanistan;
etc.

While performing assessment of payment relation to above mentioned countries/ regions the Bank will check applicable sanctions and investigate:

If the payment is related to a customer`s client located or operating in one of the above-mentioned countries. The relation could be direct (e.g. payment is received from the sender with the address in Crimea) or indirect (e.g. payment is received from other country (e.g. Turkey) but goods are being sent to Syria);
If the payment is related to front companies which helps to avoid direct connection to above-mentioned countries;
If information provided in payment details could be linked to above-mentioned countries (e.g. person name, vessel, name of city, harbour etc);
If the payment lacks a substantial information to understand the payment purpose;
Etc.

Additional observations

Swedbank would like to draw your attention to the fact that the term of executing payments or when its already executed (incl. crediting of incoming payments), may be extended or payments may be blocked or frozen by other banks than Swedbank which also participate in the execution of payment (correspondent banks, bank of beneficiary or sender). Swedbank will not compensate its customers for any damage resulting from the payment being frozen. Therefore, the customer should always evaluate potential International Sanctions risks by themselves.

Useful links:

Swedbank would like to draw attention to the fact that both the EU and the U.S. imposed broad (comprehensive) International Sanctions related to Crimea and Sevastopol regions. These sanctions cover restrictions and prohibitions on imports, exports, investments and financing in relation to these regions.

In 2022, multilateral organisations and different countries (such as U.S.) have imposed trade restrictions and prohibitions in the sectors of transport, telecommunications, energy or the prospecting, exploration and production of oil, gas and mineral resources and import of goods originating in the non-government-controlled areas, such as Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Due to the current situation, internal decisions and the risk policies of the main correspondent banks, Swedbank will not, as a rule, execute payments (both outgoing and incoming) related to these regions (i.e. beneficiary address is indicated in Crimea or in other cases where any connection to these regions have been identified) in any currencies.

In response to Russia's unprecedented and unprovoked military attack on Ukraine, a number of International sanctions have been imposed on Russian Federation, as well as on the Republic of Belarus.

The current situation has made transactions with Russia and Belarus very risky. Customers who make payments or send goods to Russia run a real risk of losing their money or goods.

That is why Swedbank has suspended payment services to and from Russia and Belarus, except for very few exceptions, such as pension payments. Incoming payments will be returned to the originator.

Military goods cover military technology and equipment which might be used for internal repression or international aggression or contribute to regional instability.

Dual-use good are items, including software and technology, which can be used for both civil and military purposes, and shall include all goods which can be used for manufacture of arms and military equipment, mass destruction weapons or their delivery etc.

Usually when arms embargoes/ restrictions on dual-use items are imposed, related technical, financial assistance as well as other services are also prohibited. Although the primary responsibility for the classification of goods and technologies lies with the customers sending or receiving such items, the prohibition to provide financial assistance is also mandatory for the Bank.

The prohibition on military goods/ dual-use items means that Swedbank cannot participate in any financial transactions, provide business support or any financial support to customers that sell, supply, transfer, mediate or export such goods to restricted countries (e.g. Russian Federation), if they are intended for military purposes, or sell, supply, transfer or export such goods to the certain EU listed entities. Therefore, Swedbank could conduct additional checks on related payments. Thus, the fulfilment of the payment order may be delayed or cancelled.

There are items related to Energy sector listed by EU which are restricted to be exported to Russia. U.S. has imposed restrictions on all goods/ non-financial services or technology in support of energy projects. Therefore, Bank must be aware if the Customer has an authorization from competent or sanctions-issuing authorities in order not to be involved in prohibited transactions.

In response to the military aggression, the EU has significantly expanded sanctions against Russia, adding unprecedented restrictive measures to the list of sanctions, supplementing the existing measures applied to Russia since 2014 in connection with the annexation of Crimea and non-implementation of the Minsk agreements. The newly introduced sanctions against Russia include not only an embargo on goods, but also a ban on the provision of services. Goods that cannot be exported to Russia, for example, are: goods and technology suited for use in aviation or space industry, luxury goods, maritime navigation goods and technology, goods and/or technology suited for use in oil refining, goods which could contribute in particular to the enhancement of Russian industrial capacities. Goods that cannot be imported from Russia includes: crude oil and refined petroleum products, coal and other solid fossil fuels, steel, gold including jewellery, cement, wood, paper and plastic, seafood and alcoholic beverages. The EU has prohibited the provision of certain business-related services to the Russian government, or any legal entity established in Russia: accounting services, IT consulting, legal consulting, architectural and engineering services, advertising, market research and public opinion research services. Please note that the above lists are not complete, the full list of prohibited goods and services, as well as other restrictions can be found in the link below.

Link to EU Common Military List: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52015XG0421(05)&from=EN

Link to EU Dual use controls: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/import-and-export-rules/export-from-eu/dual-use-controls/index_en.htm

Link to EU Council Regulation related to Russia sectoral sanctions: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02014R0833-20231001

Please note, if You or Your company operates in the field of shipping or is connected to mentioned field, then according to international shipping area regulations it is mandatory to add following information to the field “details of payment”:

M/V: name of the ship.
IMO: international maritime organisation number
FLAG: flag state
OWNERSHIP: name of the owner
TREGISTRATION: number and the country

Otherwise, payment might be delayed since the missing details will be inquired from the bank of payer. If the payment is not in accordance with international standards (including the U.S. legal acts) the payment might be frozen in the correspondent bank.

Please pay attention, that there are multiple restrictions on shipping sector imposed by EU, U.S. etc. (ex. Russian ships are prohibited from docking in EU ports). Therefore, if during evaluation Bank identified sanctions risks, transaction may be rejected/returned to sender due to Swedbank Internal policy reason.

AS SWEDBANK classifies field of Transportation as a high-risk industry by the reason of possible transportation of sanctioned goods (ex. Military goods, Dual-Use goods, Goods related to energy sector etc.) and provision of services which are prohibited by EU, U.S. OFAC, UK or UN legal requirements.

Please note, if You or Your company operates in the field of transportation or is connected to mentioned field, then you will be required to provide following information to the bank:

Information regarding transported goods (including, but not limited to the following: Certificate of origin of goods, bills, invoices, transportation documents (ex. rail, air waybills) etc.)
Information regarding final destination/final beneficiary of goods (beneficiary name, registration number, country, address)
Information regarding consignor (beneficiary name, registration number, country, address).

If Bank requests You to provide documents and received information will not include all necessary information, payment might be delayed or rejected according to Swedbank Internal policy reason.

Therefore, if Your company operates in countries, which are included in Swedbank Prohibited countries and territories list, in countries or regions which are subject to International sanctions, or in countries with increased sanctions risk, you will be required to submit information regarding sanctions risk internal control system measures taken within Your organisation.

Additional requirements regarding payments involving Ukraine

Swedbank hereby informs you that taking into account the international sanctions imposed as a result of the situation in Ukraine as well as the rules of correspondent banks and other partner banks all payments to and from Ukraine must contain a full address of the beneficiary if the funds are sent to Ukraine and a full address of the sender if the funds are sent from Ukraine. Full address shall mean the street, city names and the country information. If a full address is not provided as requested or the bank has a reason to believe that the address is not correct or has been intentionally altered then payment may not be executed. This decision has been made to protect the interests of clients and Swedbank in order to mitigate the risks related to the imposed international sanctions.

Frequently asked questions about IBAN

IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is a bank account granted to clients in banks and credit institutions according to the international ISO13616 standard.

The European Bank Standard Committee (ECBS) in the middle 90-ties decided that a more transparent and internationally recognised client account number and financial establishment's identifier should be established in order to decrease the number of errors in payments and accelerate processing of payments. Therefore, in 1997 this committee made a decision on implementation of a new account number format - IBAN in financial establishments of European countries. This format allows to recognise the beneficiary's country and account, as well as check the mathematical correctness of the indicated beneficiary's account.

In each country the length of IBAN account number may be different - even up to 34 letter and digit signs, which consist of:

2 letter country code
2 verification digits
bank code
bank's client's account number (0-9,A-Z)

Latvia's IBAN corresponds to the international IBAN standard, which in its structure is similar to client account identifiers used in other European countries for cross-border payments and will be recognised in cross-border payment documents in all countries where IBAN standard is implemented.

Latvia's IBAN consists of 21 symbol: 2 letters (country code) + 2 digits (control digits) + 4 letters (bank's BIC code) + 13 signs (account number, for currently shorter account numbers the missing signs will be replaced by zeros).

Swedbank assigned IBAN numbers to all of its clients on February 7, 2004. The old account numbers were transformed, and all newly opened account as from this date are only in IBAN standard.

Swedbank's account number in IBAN format is as follows:

From the very cooperation partner (including state authorities) only, who is the holder of the account and is aware of IBAN.

Starting from 01.01.2005, payments to Latvian banks will not be accepted if the indicated beneficiary's account number does not comply with IBAN standard.
There are no changes regarding payments in other currencies to other countries and the payments will be accepted in the same way as until now.

IBAN always starts with the country code of the respective European country, for example, LV, DE, IT. Additionally, compliance with IBAN of the beneficiary's account number of any country may be checked with the IBAN verification calculator. You can view the IBAN structure of some countries on the home page of European Banks standards in a brochure available for download. One should note that IBAN accounts in other countries usually is not equal to the one used in Latvia, after the country code there may be both letters and digits used.

IBAN examples:

Country	Length	Example
Andorra	24 an	AD12 0001 2030 2003 5910 0100
Austria	20 an	AT61 1904 3002 3457 3201
Belgium	16 an	BE68 5390 0754 7034
Cyprus	28 an	CY17 0020 0128 0000 0012 0052 7600
Czech Republic	24 an	CZ65 0800 0000 1920 0014 5399
Denmark	18 an	DK50 0040 0440 1162 43
Estonia	20 an	EE38 2200 2210 2014 5685
Finland	18 an	FI21 1234 5600 0007 85
France	27 an	FR14 2004 1010 0505 0001 3M02 606
Germany	22 an	DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00
Gibraltar	23 an	GI75 NWBK 0000 0000 7099 453
Greece	27 an	GR16 0110 1250 0000 0001 2300 695
Hungary	28 an	HU42 1177 3016 1111 1018 0000 0000
Iceland	26 an	IS14 0159 2600 7654 5510 7303 39
Ireland	22 an	IE29 AIBK 9311 5212 3456 78
Italy	27 an	IT60 X054 2811 1010 0000 0123 456
Latvia	21 an	LV80 BANK 0000 4351 9500 1
Liechtenstein	21 an	LI21 0881 0000 2324 013A
Lithuania	20 an	LT12 1000 0111 0100 1000
Luxembourg	20 an	LU28 0019 4006 4475 0000
Malta	34 an	MT84 MALT 0110 0001 2345 MTLC AST0 01S
Netherlands	18 an	NL91 ABNA 0417 1643 00
Norway	15 an	NO93 8601 1117 947
Poland	28 an	PL27 1140 2004 0000 3002 0135 5387
Portugal	25 an	PT50 0002 0123 1234 5678 9015 4
Romania	24 an	RO49 AAAA 1B31 0075 9384 0000
Slovak Republic	24 an	SK31 1200 0000 1987 4263 7541
Slovenia	19 an	SI56 1910 0000 0123 438
Spain	24 an	ES80 2310 0001 1800 0001 2345
Sweden	24 an	SE35 5000 0000 0549 1000 0003
Switzerland	21 an	CH39 0070 0115 2018 4917 3
United Kingdom	22 an	GB29 NWBK 6016 1331 9268 19

Obviously there is an error in the account number. In practice, most frequent mistakes are missing symbols, or the digit "1" is mixed with the letter "I", the digit "0" - mixed with the letter "O", there is no country code, etc. In order to clarify the current account, you should contact the beneficiary of payment and specify the account number.

The same way as before, for payments to another bank in Latvia you choose the beneficiary's bank/institution, for example, the State Treasury, BIC: TRELLV22, and in addition to the previous procedure, if you have, you indicate the budget code, for example:

The beneficiary: State Treasury
The beneficiary's account No.: LV08TREL1060000121000
Beneficiary's bank/institution: State Treasury, BIC code: TRELLV22
Information to the beneficiary/Payment purpose: corporate income tax advance
Budget code: 0194

In the same way as with payments to another bank in Latvia, the beneficiary's bank/institution is chosen to be the State Treasury, BIC: TRELLV22, for example:

The beneficiary: Latvian National Library
The beneficiary's account No.: LV14TREL2220260010800
The beneficiary's bank/institution: State Treasury, BIC code: TRELLV22
Information to the beneficiary/ Payment purpose: invoice No. 14 DD 05.05.2010.

The same way as with payments to another bank in Latvia, the beneficiary's bank/institution is chosen to be Latvijas Pasts, BIC: LPNSLV21, for example:

The beneficiary: Jānis Bērziņš
The beneficiary's account No.: LV28LPNS0123456789012
The beneficiary's bank/institution: BO VAS Latvijas pasts, BIC LPNSLV21
Information to the beneficiary/ Payment purpose: invoice No. 14 DD 05.05.2010.

High-risk countries to which outgoing payments are not processed

In order to mitigate international payment risks in line with its low-risk banking strategy, Swedbank AS will discontinue outgoing payments to several high-risk countries from 01.09.2023. These countries are:

Afghanistan; American Samoa; Anguilla; Aruba; Belize; Bhutan; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba; British Virgin Islands; Brunei Darussalam; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Central African Republic; Chad; Comoros; Cook Islands; Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea); Djibouti; East Timor (Timor Leste); El Salvador; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Eswatini (Swaziland); Fiji; Gambia; Grenada; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Haiti; Islamic Republic of Iran; Iraq; Kiribati; Lesotho; Marshall Islands; Mauritania; Myanmar (Burma); Federated States of Micronesia; Montserrat; Nauru; Niger; Niue; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Saint Helena; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; Sao Tome and Principe; Syria; Solomon Islands; Somalia; South Sudan; Suriname; Tonga; Turks and Caicos; Tuvalu; Vanuatu; Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Wallis and Futuna; Western Sahara.

What to do in emergencies?

If you've lost your card or any data used in your Authentication tools or if you suspect that they‘re disclosed to other people, immediately call us at any time of the day or night. We will block your card or access to Internet Bank account immediately and no one else will be able to access money in your bank accounts.

For private clients: call (+371 67444444).
For business clients: call (+371 67444444).

We will also automatically block access to Internet Bank if incorrect login data (User ID or code from the PIN code generator) is entered 5 times in a row. You can unblock it by calling us at (+371 67444444). In case of a repeated block, you will have to visit the bank’s branch. You should book a visit in advance. Have you discovered any unauthorised transactions on your account performed prior to the blocking of Internet Bank access? Review your account statement and submit the information to us.

Secure your login data

You shouldn’t confirm transactions or logins to internet bank or app, which are not initiated by you under no circumstances.
You shouldn’t ever disclose your personal data or data used for login to internet bank & app to other persons, including family members, friends or bank employees, unless you are calling to the bank.
Do not write down, send by e-mail, SMS, etc. or otherwise save any confidential codes and passwords to unlock the screen of your computer or mobile phone. Create complex passwords, that are difficult to guess, memorise them and change them regularly. When creating PIN codes, be sure to make PIN codes in random number combination. Do not use combinations, such as 1111, 1234, dates of birth other personal details etc.
Remember that your User ID number is as important as your personal code, thus pay a great deal of attention to its security.
Keep in mind that after login you will have access to many services including external ones which do not require additional authentication.

Closing browsing session

The login session is terminated when no activity happens for 5 minutes. You will be asked to re-enter your login details. Time limits are used for security reasons, to prevent Internet Bank access if a user forgets to log off from his/her account after finishing using the Internet Bank.

Once you finish Internet Bank session, log off (by clicking 'Logoff') and close the browser.

Address of the Internet Bank website

On the computer:

Address of the Internet Bank website

By clicking on the lock sign you should see the correct Swedbank certificate:

Swedbank certificate

On the smart device:

Swedbank certificate

Before entering your login data, make sure that the website domain is “swedbank.lv”.

Take a moment to familiarise with our security recommendations:

Do not share your personal authentication means. If you want to give your family members or your employees rights to manage funds on your accounts, please, request the Bank to grant them respective rights. They will be able to use company’s accounts on behalf of their own and by using their own personal authentication means. You can revoke these rights at any time. It is also possible to order a supplementary card linked to your account for a family member to use.. Sharing the same authentication mean between the employees or family members is strictly forbidden.
Remember, that security of all your data (User ID, PIN codes, mobile phone number provided to the bank, personal number, etc.) is the key for protecting an access to your money.

If you’re using a public computer, avoid entering personal information as there might be malware that records your details.
Do not keep User ID number together with authentication means and their confidential codes.
Never send authentication data by email.
Never disclose your login information, unless you are initiating the call with the bank. No one has the right to request you to provide your personal number and authentication mean by phone.
Your Smart-ID or PIN code generator PINs should not coincide with any part of your phone number or the sequence of numbers.
Always compare control number and read “see what you sign” if available.
By entering PIN2 of Smart-ID you are usually confirming a payment or an agreement. Be extra careful when doing it.
You will get an SMS when new Smart ID account is created. Contact bank immediately if it wasn’t you who created Smart ID.

When accessing internet bank via a laptop or stationary computer, follow these safety measures:

Install antivirus software and configure it to automatic update of the virus definitions database (at least one auto-update per day).
Install the local firewall. It should be configured so that it prevents connections from the Internet to your computer.
Use the latest browser and operating system available.
Turn on automatic updates for all software. If it cannot be updated automatically, regularly check on its latest software.
Set your browser to block pop-ups.

Check computer safety

More information on the ways to secure your device and to safely use other Internet services is available on the following websites:

https://cert.lv/lv.

Do not forget to follow safety measures when accessing internet bank via mobile devices:

Download applications only from trusted sources such as the App Store, Google Play or Windows Phone Apps – Microsoft store.
Do not jailbreak your mobile device to get around limitations set by your mobile network operator or device manufacturer. It will remove protections built into the device to defend against mobile threats.
Always screen lock your smart phone or any of your computers. If several levels of screen lock security are offered, always use the highest security level.
Do not allow other persons to use your phone or tablet were Swedbank App is installed.
Do not reveal the screen lock codes to other persons and do not allow to unlock your phone with other persons’ biometric data.
Use antivirus software.
Always adhere to the requirements or security alerts of the manufacturer of your phone device.

When shopping online, be prudent with your personal and financial data.Properly assess the threats, which you mayencounter on the internet. We recommend to ensure protection of personal devices and always follow these safety tips:

Shop in reliable shops only. It is always safe to buy goods and services in well-known Lithuanian and foreign e-shops with a good reputation. Take a critical approach to unknown sellers and try to find out more information about their activity. Study public internet feedback about a specific online shop. Find out whether the website presents detailed contact data of its administrator (address, phone, email, etc.), and make sure it does not contain various errors in their links (additional words or letters, strange symbols), popup windows, advertisings, a great number of links instead of informative content.
Be cautious about discounts. You have found a high-quality product offered at a particularly low price? Before making a payment order, be sure that the company that offers the product really exists and is trustworthy. Be careful about advertisements in social networks. They may lead you to a fake online shop.

Safe shopping by card. When shopping in foreign e-shops, the most common way of payment is by card. In this case you will have to indicate the details of your payment card. If an online shop participates in international security programmes, special logos such as “Mastercard Identity Check”, and “Visa Secure” for Visa cards are used in this shop. You may be redirected to internet bank to confirm payment transaction by logging in. Learn more about “Safe online shopping” programme here. Before making payment in online shop, please evaluate safety of such online shop and study public internet feedback about its activity.
Safe payment via electronic banking system. When shopping in Latvian online shops, usually you will be redirected to Swedbank internet bank account. You will recognise it from the Swedbank logo and internet bank address: https://www.swedbank.lv/banklink. It confirms that payment is made directly through the bank system. After you enter your login details, the website will automatically display the generated payment form.
Third party providers. As of 14/09/2019, when you shop online, you might be offered to use payment initiation service, offered by payment institution (PISP), other than the bank, to pay for goods or services. If you choose to initiate payment from your account, kept with the bank, you might be asked to fill in the payment order form in the PISP’s environment, and give your consent to transfer data, necessary for performance of payment transaction, and later to confirm payment order with the Swedbank internet bank authentication mean. If you have noticed any transaction in the account statement, not authorised by you, inform us immediately by calling +371 67444444 (for private clients) or +371 67444444 (for business clients).

Suspicious SMS messages. Stay alert!

Fraudsters could impersonalize bank by sending fraudulent SMS under our name to obtain personal and Authentication mean data. These messages usually offer to click on an indicated link, to open an attachment or to call the indicated phone number in order to allegedly update, revise, check or activate your account in internet bank.
Never answer to a SMS message requesting you to submit confidential data. Never click on the links and do not open attachments from the unknown sender because this way you can activate a virus, or you will be redirected to a fraudulent website.
In case you are clicked on the link and were redirected to a website resembling our site, do not enter any requested data and contact us. Here you can find the information on how you can recognise the authentic website.
If you suspect that other persons have gained access to your login data, contact us immediately.

Suspicious emails or calls. Be cautious!

If you receive a suspicious call or email from an alleged “bank employee” or “police officer” requesting you to disclose confidential login details – under no circumstances disclose such information. Do not trust this person only because he or she knows something about you. Fraudsters can have different scenarios to steal money (they request to update data; inform about suspicious bank transactions, etc.), yet they have one common feature – they request to disclose confidential internet bank login data or to enter the generated code of Authentication mean and transaction confirmation.
Neither bank employees nor representatives of law enforcement or other institutions contact residents requesting them to disclose their Internet Bank details (User ID, PIN codes, etc.) or initiate as well as confirm transactions not initiated by you. Therefore, stay alert and do not open suspicious emails. Make sure that you log in to the Internet Bank via the right website (https://www.swedbank.lv).

Here are some of the most common indicators that a phone call or email or SMS that you have received is most likely a scam or an attack:

Any message that communicates a tremendous sense of urgency. The criminals are trying to rush you into making a mistake.
Any message that pressures you into bypassing or ignoring our policies and procedures.
Any message that promotes possibilities to gain high profit. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Be very suspicious of any phone call or message that pretends to be an official or government organization urging you to take immediate action.

You have found the security flaw? Notify us!

It is important for us at Swedbank that our customers can feel safe and secure when managing their monetary affairs with our electronic channels. Therefore, we seek to ensure the highest security level in IT systems. Despite this, an error may slip by. If you have found a security flaw, we would like to hear more about it to be able to correct the problem as soon as possible.

How do you report?

Send an email to us at responsible-disclosure@swedbank.com. We prefer that you use our public PGP key to protect the information you send over. Make sure to have included the following information:

Detailed description of the vulnerability containing such info as URL and type of vulnerability;
The necessary information that we need in order to reproduce the problem;
If applicable, a screenshot of the vulnerability you have found;
Contact information, name and surname, email, phone number, and your public PGP key (if you have one).

This personal data submitted by you will be processed by Swedbank in order to inform you about the analysis of IT security flaws noticed by you and their correction, and, if necessary, to contact you regarding the revision of the information submitted by you. More information about Swedbank’s data processing procedure is available in the Swedbank Principles of Processing Personal Data at www.swedbank.lv.

What can you report?

You can report security flaws that you have found in any of our services. Examples of security flaws are cross-site scripting, flaws in encryption or flaws with security implications in logic controls. The reporting service is not designated for other logical errors, errors in texts, questions about our services, questions about the security of our services or similar.

What can you expect from Swedbank?

We will confirm that we have received your description, continuously keep you updated while we process the issue, and inform you when the issue is fixed. Claims for compensation as a condition for sending in a vulnerability are not accepted.

What is required from you?

It is important for both us and our clients that you follow good practice, i.e. that:

You do not use the vulnerability to access or attempt to access information that does not belong to you;
You do not use the vulnerability to remove or modify information;
You do not affect the availability of our services;
You give us an opportunity to fix the reported vulnerability before going public with it.

Can you file a report anonymously?

Yes, but then we cannot respond back and keep you updated on the status.

PGP key

Key ID: 0x0AD6CCAF

Control code: 2D14 4030 6D4B 68C3 F286 3AC6 333B E8E4 0AD6 CCAF

We encourage you to update your browser and operating system version as soon as update is released. These updates can be set up automatically for better security and experience in our digital channels. We officially support these browser versions:

Google Chrome 105 and later;
Microsoft Edge 105 and later;
Mozilla Firefox 121 and later;
Safari 15.4 and later.

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