Guides · EUR TRANSITION

EUR transition 2014 — history and what still matters

Latvia replaced the Latvian lats (LVL) with the euro (EUR) on January 1, 2014 as the 18th Eurozone member. Transition rate: 1 EUR = 0.702804 LVL. Even though the transition was completed more than a decade ago, there are legacy elements still to know, especially for company accounting and historical contracts.

01

Rate 0.702804 and conversion rules

The official transition rate was 1 EUR = 0.702804 LVL, fixed by the EU Council on July 9, 2013. All amounts from before 2014 (invoices, contracts, balances) are converted at this rate. There are rounding rules: 0.005 EUR or more rounds up, less rounds down. Banks converted client accounts themselves without extra costs on transition night (from 31.12.2013 to 01.01.2014). The lats was the world's most expensive currency right before the transition, drawing additional attention.

02

Dual pricing period (until 30.06.2014)

From October 1, 2013 until June 30, 2014 — before and after the official transition — all store price tags, invoices, bank statements, salaries had to be labeled in both EUR and LVL. Goal: citizens gradually adopt new prices. From July 1, 2014, dual pricing became optional. Many merchants continued showing both currencies for another 2–3 years, until no one remembered the lats prices anymore.

03

Legacy LVL invoices and documents

Invoices issued before 1.1.2014 remain in LVL in archive, but for VAT declarations (monthly VAT from 1.1.2014) they are converted to EUR. In court cases over pre-Euro contracts, reference to LVL amounts may be needed for authenticity — but payment is always in EUR at the 0.702804 rate. Historical real-estate contracts (40-year mortgages from 2005–2013) still include references to LVL amounts in line with the original text.

04

SEPA and cross-border payments

Since Latvia is in the Eurozone, all domestic and intra-EU payments use the SEPA standard. Latvian banks (Swedbank, SEB, Citadele, Luminor, Industra) all issue IBAN numbers starting with LV (e.g., LV80 BANK 0000 0000 0000 0). SEPA Instant (10 seconds) has been supported since 2018, SEPA Credit Transfer standard. SWIFT MT103 only for non-EU payments (USD US, GBP UK post-Brexit, RUB Russia — both with sanctions restrictions).

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