In Latvia, the regulation of state actions in the event of a large-scale threat (including military threats) is primarily determined by two laws: the National Security Law and the Emergency Situation Law,” writes Neatkarīgā.
The National Security Law establishes what the financial system must ensure in the event of a threat to the state. This primarily concerns critically important financial services – the availability of cash and cashless payments. Based on this law, we have adopted the relevant regulations,” explained the Bank of Latvia to journalists.
“These regulations include the availability of cash, the operation of ATMs and branches, etc. Most banks preferred not to comment on their actions in the event of an attack on Latvia; however, they clarified that the Bank of Latvia has already introduced unified rules for critical situations. In particular, detailed instructions have been provided to ensure the country’s monetary supply. For example, Swedbank operates the largest network of ATMs in Latvia, and some of them are part of a critical ATM network to ensure access to cash in case of a threat. During the bank's readiness check to act in an emergency, investments were made to support logistics so that alternative solutions could be implemented and operations could continue in the event of power outages or data transmission failures. Specifically, to ensure the powering of ATMs from generators and others.
“In collaboration with card payment providers, we have created a so-called autonomous transaction system that allows the purchase of essential goods from a number of merchants, even if data exchange is unavailable,” noted Swedbank.
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