IBAN - International Bank Account Number, assigned to the banks' customers according to the international ISO13616 standard.

The implementation of the given account number format was based on the appropriate decisions of the European Bank Standard Committee in order to accelerate the payments processing and to minimize the payment processing related costs via automated processing of the payments.

The length of IBAN may vary in different EU countries; - Latvia's IBAN consists of 21 letter and digit signs. There are also IBAN accounts consisting of 16 symbols (Belgium) and 34 symbols (Malta).

The compulsory elements of any IBAN are:

• 2-letters country code;
• 2 IBAN check digits;
• 4-symbol Bank identifier;
• Bank' customer account number.

You can check the correctness of IBAN, using a special IBAN verification calculator at JSC "SMP Bank" Web sits or approaching your account manager.

As of January 01, 2007, IBAN code is the only account identifier for a beneficiary of credit transfer, having an account with a bank in EU or EEA (European Economic Area), regardless the currency of the payment. The banks in the EU and EEA are entitled to reject processing a credit transfer, when the beneficiary's account number is not in IBAN format. Besides, when returning the payment to the ordering customers, banks are entitled to charge extra handling fees from the payment amount.

OUR, SHA - what is a difference between the above charges' options? 

In accordance to the international S.W.I.F.T. standards, the following customer payment order MT103 related charges' definitions are used:

OUR - All transaction charges are to be borne by the ordering customer. The charges include JSC "SMP Bank" charges and all the anticipated commissions (or a part thereof) of the third parties. Effecting the Customer's payment order JSC "SMP Bank"  sends a SWIFT message MT103 with a mark "OUR" in the field "Details of Charges", instructing all the parties involved in transferring the funds to pay to the beneficiary a full amount. By this condition the liability of JSC "SMP Bank" is limited. JSC "SMP Bank" is released of liability for non-executing its instructions by any of the parties involved, as well as for receipt of the transferred funds not in a full amount caused by the reasons beyond the control of JSC "SMP Bank"   (for example, a common transfer practice of the given country).

SHA - Transaction charges on the Sender's side are to be borne by the ordering customer, transaction charges on the Receiver's side are to be borne by the beneficiary customer. Actually, it means, that only JSC "SMP Bank" charges are to be paid by the ordering customer.  All the expenses or commissions of the third parties (correspondent bank, intermediary bank, and beneficiary's bank) are to be covered by the beneficiary customer through a deduction of the amount paid. Affecting the Customer's payment order SMP Bank sends a SWIFT message MT103 with a mark "SHA" in the field "Details of Charges". All the third parties' charges if any shall be deducted from the proceeds to be credited to the beneficiary's account.

Regulated payment - what is it?

Regulated payment - is a payment, compliant with the following criteria:

• The amount of the payment is up to EUR 50 000, 00;
• The account number is indicated in the IBAN format;
• The identification S.W.I.F.T. or BIC code of the beneficiary's bank is specified;
• All the banks participating in the payment chain are EU residents;
• The charges option chosen, - SHA.

In accordance with the Regulation No. 2560/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2001 "On cross-border payments in euro", certain restrictions in respect of the charges levied to the cross-border payments in euro are laid down: the charges, applied by the EU banks to processing the so called regulated payments should be the same as those for euro payments within a particular country.  Provided the above, the only case, when a commission is applied to processing a regulated payment is, when the same commission is applied by the bank, participated in the payment processing, to the domestic payment, - a rare occurrence in the banking practice.

STP-payment - what is it?

STP-payment - is a payment, processed using the Straight Through (automated) Processing technologies (STP - Straight through Processing), and thus minimizing all the payment processing related costs. Obviously, the main criteria for STP is a presence of computer-readable identification codes for the banks-participants and IBAN, if applicable. For the bank' customer this means, that when submitting a payment order to the bank, the customer should provide complete information, including full name, address, city and country of registration on the beneficiary's bank as well as the other banks participating in the payment processing.  The above complete information enables JSC "SMP Bank" officer to find an identification code for the particular credit institution in the international data bases.