First, the monetary jumble had to be brought under one roof. On 7 September 1922, Latvia’s Constituent Assembly adopted the law establishing the Bank of Latvia on the basis of the State Savings and Credit Bank, with initial capital of 10 million lats and the right to issue state money. The bank began work in early November, already under the sign of the lats. It was not just a new institutional name: after war, rubles, marks and temporary notes, Latvia gained its own monetary centre.

After the War of Independence, Latvia’s financial system was still being built, and money left by earlier regimes circulated alongside Latvian rubles. The introduction of the lats in August 1922 and the Bank of Latvia founding law in September were a highly practical part of sovereignty: money, credit and issuance came into Latvian institutional hands.