14. May 2020
Private and business clients of Estonian banking group LHV Bank (’LHV’) will now have access to USD payments after LHV partnered with multinational American bank ‘Citi’, that has operations in more than 160 countries.
LHV’s clients will be able to make USD payments through online banking or via LHV’s proprietary Applications Programming Interface (’API’) ’LHV Connect’. The service, which is in high demand among LHV’s clients that export goods outside Europe, will be available for Estonian resident private individuals and legal entities. Payment service provider clients and non-resident institutions will not have access to USD payments.
LHV has been looking for a new correspondent bank since 2016, when its previous banking partner exited the Baltic market. In addition to USD payments, LHV’s clients are able to make payments in 14 other currencies. LHV is also a direct member of Euro and GBP payments systems.
Andres Kitter, Member of the Board, commented, “The Citi partnership will significantly simplify the day-to-day operations of those customers of ours who export goods outside of Europe. Due to the US dollar’s status as a major global currency, providing our clients with access to USD payments has been a major priority for LHV and we are therefore delighted to have now secured this capability.
“This partnership with Citi is the culmination of years of negotiations. Having successfully gone through a stringent due diligence process by a leading US financial institution, we view this as third party validation of LHV’s credentials as a robust and trusted partner. LHV strives to offer new services to our clients as we look to become the best banking provider for retail and business customers. I am especially pleased that we were able to roll out this new service immediately, as we are keen to play our part in keeping the global economy moving.”
Additional information about foreign payments is available on LHV’s webpage: lhv.ee/maksed.
LHV Group is the largest domestic financial group and capital provider in Estonia. LHV Group's key subsidiaries are LHV Pank and LHV Varahaldus. LHV employs over 460 people. LHV’s banking services are used by nearly 219,000 clients, and pension funds managed by LHV have nearly 178,000 active clients.
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