# Instant Links

> Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/instant-links
> research date 2026-05-29 · extracted at 2026-10-07
> Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards

Specifications:
- [Proxy Registry Instant Links — Latvijas Banka](https://www.bank.lv/en/operational-areas/payment-systems/proxy-registry-instant-links)
- [Instant Links era — Finance Latvia](https://www.financelatvia.eu/en/news/a-new-era-of-instant-links-in-latvias-interbank-payments/)

## Overview

> **Note on classification.** This entry was originally bucketed as a QR standard, but instant links is **not a QR-symbol standard** — it is a phone-number-as-IBAN proxy registry. Reclassified as `Phone Proxy`. The wiki shows no playground because there is no QR payload to encode; the slug is retained to avoid breaking incoming links.

**Instant Links** (Proxy Registry) is **Latvia's national phone-number-to-IBAN proxy registry**, established and maintained by **Latvijas Banka** (Bank of Latvia, central bank) and launched in **summer 2019** <sup>[1][1], [2][2], [Latvia report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/LV)</sup>. Instant Links is the **enabling infrastructure that lets Latvians make interbank instant payments using only the recipient's mobile phone number** — rather than entering the full IBAN. The structural model is **central-bank-operated proxy directory** — Latvijas Banka safekeeps the links between customers' phone numbers and current-account IBANs across all participating Latvian banks.

This **central-bank-operated proxy directory** model is structurally distinct from peers like [PayNow QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/paynow-qr) (SG, ABS bank-consortium-operated proxy), [Bizum](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/bizum) (ES, Bizum SL bank-consortium-operated), or [MIA QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/mia-qr) (MD, NBM operates directly). Latvijas Banka chose **explicit central-bank operation of the proxy registry as a public-good infrastructure** — banks participate but the registry itself is central-bank infrastructure. **Citadele banka** was the first to integrate, with other major Latvian banks (SEB, Swedbank, Luminor, Rietumu) following.

## History

**Background — Latvian payment infrastructure** <sup>[Latvia report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/LV)</sup>:
- **Latvijas Banka** — Latvia's central bank; eurozone member (since 2014).
- **SEPA SCT Inst** available for instant euro transfers; but identifier model required IBAN.
- Pre-2019: no proxy registry → phone-number-based instant payments not possible without IBAN entry.

**Summer 2019 — Instant Links launches** <sup>[1][1], [2][2]</sup>:
- Latvijas Banka establishes Proxy Registry Instant Links.
- First bank: **AS Citadele banka** (Latvian retail bank).
- Functionality: link customer mobile phone number to current-account IBAN at any participating Latvian bank.

**Functionality expansion**:
- Major Latvian banks (SEB, Swedbank, Luminor, etc.) progressively integrate.
- Service becomes broadly available across Latvian banking sector.

**Cross-rail integration**:
- Instant Links integrates with broader Latvian instant-payment infrastructure (TIPS-eligible via SEPA SCT Inst).

**Latvijas Banka's broader payments role** <sup>[Latvia report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/LV)</sup>:
- Latvijas Banka also operates **instant payment requests** functionality (request-to-pay) and an **instant payment laboratory** (fintech-testbed environment).

**IBAN + beneficiary-name verification (Eurosystem-level)**:
- Latvijas Banka will also provide IBAN and beneficiary-name verification at the Eurosystem level — extending its proxy-registry expertise to the broader European context.

## Technical specification

Instant Links is **a central-bank-operated phone-number-to-IBAN proxy registry** <sup>[1][1], [2][2]</sup>:

| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| **Operator** | **Latvijas Banka** (central bank) |
| **Function** | Maintains link between customer phone number ↔ current-account IBAN |
| **Underlying instant rail** | SEPA SCT Inst (TIPS-eligible) |
| **Settlement** | <10 seconds via SCT Inst |
| **Currency** | EUR |
| **Identifier** | Mobile phone number → IBAN proxy |
| **Storage** | Latvijas Banka safekeeps the proxy links |
| **First bank** | **AS Citadele banka** |
| **Participation** | All major Latvian banks |

**Architecture** <sup>[1][1], [2][2]</sup>:
- Customer registers phone number → linked to bank account at any participating Latvian bank.
- Sender selects recipient by phone number in their bank app.
- Bank queries Latvijas Banka's Instant Links registry → fetches recipient IBAN.
- Initiates SEPA SCT Inst transfer to recipient's bank.
- Settlement within seconds.

## Use cases

**P2P transfers by phone number** <sup>[2][2]</sup>: Cardinal use case — send EUR to anyone whose phone number is in Instant Links registry, without knowing their IBAN.

**Friend-to-friend payment** <sup>[2][2]</sup>: Splitting bills, paying friends — frictionless.

**Cross-bank reach**: Works across all participating Latvian banks — single registry serves all participants.

**SEPA SCT Inst eligibility**: Cross-border euro transfers via SEPA SCT Inst (any EU SCT Inst-reachable account).

**Request-to-pay (related Latvijas Banka product)**: Latvijas Banka also operates instant-payment-request functionality.

## Implementations & ecosystem

**Operator**: **Latvijas Banka** (Bank of Latvia, central bank).

**First-bank-integrated**: **AS Citadele banka**.

**Major Latvian bank participants** <sup>[Latvia report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/LV)</sup>:
- **Citadele banka** (first).
- **SEB Banka** (joined later).
- **Swedbank** (Latvian subsidiary of Swedish Swedbank).
- **Luminor Bank** (Nordic bank operating in Baltic region).
- **Rietumu Banka**.
- Other Latvian banks.

**Latvijas Banka's broader payment-systems portfolio**:
- Instant Links proxy registry.
- Instant payment requests (R2P).
- Instant payment laboratory (fintech testbed).
- IBAN + beneficiary-name verification (Eurosystem-level).

## Fun facts

- **Central-bank-operated proxy registry**: Latvijas Banka's choice to **operate the proxy registry directly as central-bank infrastructure** is structurally distinctive. Most peer national rails have bank-consortium-operated registries (Bizum SL, ABS PayNow, etc.).
- **Summer 2019 launch — early European mover**: Few EU central banks had launched phone-number-proxy registries by mid-2019. Latvia was a relatively early adopter.
- **First-bank-integrated: Citadele banka**: A medium-size Latvian bank rather than the largest (Swedbank or SEB). Pioneer-first-mover dynamic.
- **Public-good infrastructure positioning**: By operating the registry as central-bank infrastructure, Latvijas Banka positions phone-number-IBAN-mapping as **public-good infrastructure** — accessible to all participating banks equally.
- **Eurosystem-level expansion**: Latvijas Banka extending its proxy-registry expertise to provide **IBAN + beneficiary-name verification at the Eurosystem level** is structurally interesting — a small central bank's domain expertise becoming pan-European infrastructure.
- **Instant payment laboratory**: Latvijas Banka also operates a fintech testbed environment for instant-payment innovation — additional public-good infrastructure positioning.
- **Latvia + Lithuania (CENTROlink)**: Two Baltic central banks — Latvijas Banka with Instant Links + Bank of Lithuania with [CENTROlink](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/centrolink) — together provide structurally important EU payment-infrastructure innovation despite small populations.
- **EUR-denominated**: Latvia is eurozone member; Instant Links operates in EUR via SEPA SCT Inst.

## Comparison

| Feature | Instant Links (LV) | [PayNow QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/paynow-qr) (SG) | [Bizum](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/bizum) (ES) | [Blink](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/blink) (BG) Mobile Lookup | Surepay (NL) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | **Latvijas Banka (central bank)** | ABS (banks) | Bizum SL (bank consortium) | BORICA AD | Surepay BV (private) |
| Launch | Summer 2019 | Jul 2017 | Oct 2016 | Early 2023 | 2016 |
| Function | Phone → IBAN proxy registry | Phone → bank account | Phone → bank account | Phone → IBAN | IBAN-name check |
| Underlying rail | SEPA SCT Inst | FAST | Iberpay SCT Inst | BISERA6 | n/a (verification) |
| Currency | EUR | SGD | EUR | BGN | EUR |
| Cross-border | EU SCT Inst | TH, IN | None | EU SCT Inst | n/a |

**Closest peer**: **Blink Mobile Lookup (BG)** — both central-bank-operated phone-IBAN proxy registries in small eurozone-adjacent economies.

**Structural distinction**: Instant Links's **explicit central-bank-as-public-good-infrastructure operation** is the cleanest exemplar of this model.

## Status

**Active, expanding** <sup>[1][1], [bank.lv]</sup>:
- **Latvijas Banka-operated** since summer 2019.
- **All major Latvian banks** participating.
- **SEPA SCT Inst** underlying rail.
- **Latvijas Banka providing Eurosystem-level IBAN + name verification**.

**Outlook**: Continued expansion across Baltic + EU; possible role-model for other small EU central banks considering proxy-registry operation as public-good infrastructure.

## Sources

[1]: https://www.bank.lv/en/operational-areas/payment-systems/proxy-registry-instant-links "Proxy Registry Instant Links — Latvijas Banka"
[2]: https://www.financelatvia.eu/en/news/a-new-era-of-instant-links-in-latvias-interbank-payments/ "Instant Links era — Finance Latvia"

- [1] [Proxy Registry Instant Links — Latvijas Banka][1]
- [2] [A new era of instant links — Finance Latvia][2]
- <sup>[Latvia report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/LV)</sup> `reports/countries/LV-latvia.md`

## Deployments

Found in the following country reports (grep across `reports/countries/`):

- **LV** — [LV-latvia.md](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/LV)