Pursuant to the Republic of Latvia "National Statistics Law" and Law "On the Bank of Latvia", the Bank of Latvia shall comply with the information confidentiality requirements. Moreover, the Bank of Latvia as a member of the European System of Central Banks shall also comply with the provisions on information confidentiality stipulated in Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank.

I The concept of information confidentiality

The concept of "information confidentiality" has been defined in Section 18.1 of the "National Statistics Law", as well as in Article 1.12 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98  concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 951/2009  of 9 October 2009 (hereinafter, the Regulation). 

II Regulations for the use and publication of statistical data

Section 18.2 of the "National Statistics Law" stipulates the purposes that the confidential data, collected for statistical purposes only, may be used for, and Section 19 provides for the exceptions with respect to the use of confidential data.

The Law "On the Bank of Latvia" (Section 40.1) stipulates that the Bank of Latvia shall publish the compiled statistical information.

The Regulation provides for the procedure for the protection and use of the confidential statistical information collected by the European System of Central Banks (Article 8), as well as the rules for the exchange of confidential statistical information among the participants of the European Statistical System, inter alia Eurostat and the Central Statistical Bureau (Article 8a).

Article 2.3 of the Guideline of the European Central Bank of 22 December 1998 concerning the common rules and minimum standards to protect the confidentiality of the individual statistical information collected by the European Central Bank assisted by the national central banks (ECB/1998/NP28)  (hereinafter, the Guideline) stipulates a particular criterion for data publishing.

III Prohibition to disclose individual information regarding the respondent

Section 18.4 of the "National Statistics Law" provides for a prohibition for the employees of the institutions producing national statistics to disclose individual information on respondents. Moreover, Section 22 of the above law also provides for liability for disclosing statistical information.

 
IV Excerpts from legislation

1. Law "On the Bank of Latvia"

Article 40
(1) "The Bank of Latvia shall collect, register and compile financial and balance-of-payments statistics, as well as publish the compiled statistics; such information shall not be published in a way that would make it possible to identify, directly or indirectly, any natural or legal person."

2. National Statistics Law

Section 18. Use of the Statistical Information and Confidentiality Regarding Statistics
(1) Statistical data shall be considered confidential if they directly or indirectly allow for identification of the private individuals or state authorities regarding which personal statistical data have been provided.
(2) The confidential data collected for statistical purposes only, may only be used for making of summaries and grouping of data, analysis of economic and social phenomena and processes.
(3) The Central Statistical Bureau and other state authorities producing national statistics shall take the necessary administrative, technical and organisational measures to ensure the confidentiality of individual statistical data, to prevent unauthorised access to information, distortion or dissemination thereof, unintentional or unauthorised destruction.
(4) It is prohibited for the individuals of the Central Statistical Bureau and of other state authorities producing official statistics to disclose any information regarding respondents, which they have become aware of while performing /service or work duties. This rule shall also apply to the persons who are temporarily involved in the collection and compilation of national statistical information.

Section 19. Exceptions to the Procedures for the Use of National Statistical Information
(1) The requirements of Section 18 of this Law regarding non-disclosure of individual statistical data shall not apply to the following information regarding respondents:
1) information regarding the addresses, telephone numbers and type of activity of private individuals, with exception of a natural person who is not an economic operator, and public persons;
2) information regarding the number and composition of the paid staff employed by the respondents, except information regarding specific natural persons;
3) information regarding the types of products obtained, processed, transported, accumulated, bought and sold by the respondents, as well as regarding the types of services they provide;
4) information regarding emissions into the environment, the quality of the environment, the measures of nature protection and the use of natural resources; and
5) information for the publication of which a written authorisation of a respondent has been received.
(2) The Bank of Latvia and the Financial and Capital Market Commission have the right to exchange confidential data regarding the activities of financial and capital market members.

Section 22. Liability for the Disclosure of Statistical Information
For failure to comply with provisions regarding statistical confidentiality, employees of state or local government authorities producing national statistics as well as persons temporarily involved in collection and compilation of statistical information shall be held liable in accordance with the procedures prescribed in regulatory enactments.

3. Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank, as well as amendments to this Regulation by the Council Regulation (EC) No 951/2009 of 9 October 2009

Article 1
12) "confidential statistical information” shall mean statistical information which allows reporting agents or any other legal or natural person, entity or branch to be identified, either directly from their name or address or from an officially allocated identification code, or indirectly through deduction, thereby disclosing individual information. To determine whether a reporting agent or any other legal or natural person, entity or branch is identifiable, account shall be taken of all the means that might reasonably be used by a third party to identify the said reporting agent or the other legal or natural person, entity or branch.

Article 8
Protection and use of confidential statistical information collected by the ESCB
The following rules shall apply to prevent the unlawful use and disclosure of confidential statistical information provided by the reporting agent or other legal or natural person, entity or branch to an ESCB member or transmitted within the ESCB:
1. The ESCB shall use confidential statistical information exclusively for the exercise of the tasks of the ESCB except in any of the following circumstances:
(a) if the reporting agent or the other legal or natural person, entity or branch which can be identified, has explicitly given its consent to the use of the said statistical information for other purposes;
(b) for transmission to the members of ESS in accordance with Article 8a(1);
(c) for granting scientific research bodies access to confidential statistical information which does not allow direct identification, and with the prior explicit consent of the authority which provided the information;
(d) as regards national central banks, if the said statistical information is used in the field of prudential supervision or, in accordance with Article 14.4 of the Statute, for the exercise of functions other than those specified in the Statute.
2. Reporting agents shall be informed of the statistical and other administrative uses, to which statistical information provided by them, may be put.  Reporting agents shall have the right to obtain information concerning the legal basis for the transmission and the protective measures adopted.
3. The ESCB members shall take all the necessary regulatory, administrative, technical and organisational measures to ensure the physical and logical protection of confidential statistical information. The ECB shall define common rules and implement minimum standards to prevent unlawful disclosure and unauthorised use of confidential statistical information. 
4. Transmission of confidential statistical information within the ESCB that has been collected pursuant to Article 5 of the Statute shall take place: 
(a) to the extent and at the level of detail necessary for the performance of the tasks of the ESCB referred to in the Treaty; or 
(b) provided that such transmission is necessary for the efficient development, production or dissemination of statistics under Article 5 of the Statute or for increasing their quality.
5. The ECB may decide on the collection and transmission, to the extent and level of detail necessary, within the ESCB of confidential information originally collected for purposes other than those of Article 5 of the Statute, provided that this is necessary for the efficient development or production of statistics or for increasing their quality and that these statistics are necessary for the performance of the tasks of the ESCB referred to in the Treaty.
6. Confidential statistical information may be exchanged within the ESCB to grant scientific research bodies access to such information, in accordance with paragraphs 1(c) and 2.
7. Statistical information taken from sources which are available to the public in accordance with national legislation shall not be considered confidential.
8. Member States and the ECB shall adopt all necessary measures to ensure the protection of confidential statistical information, including the imposition of the appropriate enforcement measures in the event of an infringement.  This Article shall apply without prejudice to special national or Community provisions relating to the transmission of information other than confidential statistical information to the ECB and shall not apply to confidential statistical information initially transmitted between an ESS authority and an ESCB member, to which Article 8a shall apply.  This Article shall not prevent confidential statistical information collected for purposes other than, or in addition to, meeting the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements from being used to meet those other purposes."

Article 8.a
Exchange of confidential statistical information between the ESCB and the ESS 
1. Without prejudice to national provisions on the exchange of confidential statistical information other than information covered in this Regulation, the transmission of confidential statistical information between an ESCB member that collected the information and an ESS authority may take place provided that this transmission is necessary for the efficient development, production or dissemination, or for increasing the quality, of European statistics within the respective spheres of competence of the ESS and the ESCB and that this necessity has been justified. 
2. Any further transmission beyond the first transmission must be explicitly authorised by the authority that collected the information. 
3. The confidential statistical information which is transmitted between an ESS authority and an ESCB member shall not be used for purposes that are not exclusively statistical, such as for administrative or tax purposes or legal proceedings or for the purposes referred to in Articles 6 and 7. 
4. Statistical information which the ESCB members receive from ESS authorities and which was obtained from sources lawfully available to the public and which remains available to the public according to national legislation shall not be considered confidential for the purpose of dissemination of statistics obtained from this statistical information. 
5. Within their respective spheres of competence, the ESCB members shall take all necessary regulatory, administrative, technical and organisational measures to ensure the physical and logical protection of confidential statistical information (statistical disclosure control) provided by the ESS authorities. 
6. Confidential statistical information provided by the ESS authorities shall only be accessible to staff working in statistical activities within their specific domain of work. These persons shall use these data exclusively for statistical purposes.  They shall be subject to this restriction even after the cessation of their functions. 
7. Member States and the ECB shall take appropriate measures to prevent and sanction any violations of the protection of confidential statistical information provided by the ESS authorities. 

4. Guideline of the ECB of 22 December 1998 concerning the common rules and minimum standards to protect the confidentiality of the individual statistical information collected by the ECB assisted by the national central banks (ECB/1998/NP28)

Article 2
3. All appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure that confidential statistical information is arranged in such a way that any published data covers at least three economic agents. Where one or two economic agents make up a sufficiently large proportion of any observation to make them indirectly identifiable, published data shall be arranged in such a way as to prevent their indirect identification. These rules shall not apply if the reporting agents or the other legal persons, natural persons, entities or branches that can be identified have explicitly given their consent to the disclosure.