Nordea reports the availability of banking services after the introduction of the euro

Transition to the euro by Nordea bank has been successful, and as of Thursday, 2 January, all the banking services provided by the Bank are available to customers in full. For customer convenience, for payments in euros the Bank suggests using payment cards and remote payment channels the Netbank, mobile Netbank and ATMs. Information on the availability of banking services may be found on www.nordea.lv/eiro

Even though during the first days of the year people’s interest in paying with euros was rather moderate, it is now increasing, as illustrated by the increasing number of customers at the Bank’s customer service units and the growing use of remote services. In order to facilitate the transition process to the euro, the Bank invites the population to re-acquaint themselves with the availability of services after the introduction of the euro and evaluate the urgency of transactions to be carried out at customer service units.

ATMs and payment cards

During the first days of the month more than 6,000 cash withdrawals with an average amount of EUR 120 (LVL 84) and more than 500 cash deposits with an average amount of EUR 340 (LVL 238.9564) using Nordea ATMs have taken place.  More than 17,500 payments in total have been carried out using payment cards.

Currently, euro banknotes in denominations of 10 and 50 are available at Nordea ATMs, but these will be gradually supplemented with euro banknotes in denominations of 5 and 20.

Names and functions of payments have been changed

After the introduction of the euro, the Nordea Netbank offers four types of payments – intra-bank payments, European EUR payments and currency payments, and payments between customer accounts:

• Local or domestic payments in lats, which were previously executed to other banks in Latvia, will become European EUR payments and will be executable to any EU/EEA Member State. As before, two types of payments – standard and urgent – will be available;

• Payments to other accounts with Nordea Latvija will become intra-bank payments. As before, these will be commission free in the Netbank;

• SEPA payments will be replaced by European EUR payments. These will no longer be offered separately.

• Currency payments – also in the future, when using currency payments, it will be possible to perform euro payments to countries outside the EU/EEA, as well as payments in any other currencies (e.g. dollar payments).

Customers are encouraged to take their time in exchanging lats for euros in the first days of January

Cash exchanges of lats for euros will be available at a fixed rate of 0.702804 and with no commission at Nordea banks for six months until 30 June 2014. For customer convenience, until 31 January of this year the operating hours of the Customer Service Unit “Nordea māja” will be extended by one hour from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Also, cash deposits in both lats and euros into the ATMs of the “friendly” bank “Citadele” will be accepted until 14 January of this year.

Information on the availability of Nordea banking services after the introduction of the euro may be found on Nordea website www.nordea.lv/eiro