Latvia's commercial pledge register holds 7,874 pledgors with an active pledge, roughly one in every 28 active companies. Each entry means part of the company's property is pledged to a creditor, and only the entry makes that pledge binding on buyers and other creditors.
A commercial pledge (komercķīla) is security a company gives a creditor over its movable property: if the obligation is not met, the creditor can satisfy the claim out of the pledged assets. The law treats as a commercial pledge only a pledge right entered in the register in the manner it prescribes.1 The register is kept by the Register of Enterprises (Uzņēmumu reģistrs, UR) and is public.
The agreement and the entry do two different jobs. The agreement binds the parties: if the pledge is not registered, it stays in force and the pledgee can sue to compel registration.2 But until the entry is made, the pledgee cannot exercise the pledge right and the pledge has no effect against third parties. A creditor's place in the queue also runs from the date of registration, not the date of the agreement. The entry binds everyone else: what the register shows is deemed correct, and neither a buyer nor another creditor has a duty to check that it complies with the law.3 The entry is therefore not confirmation of a settled transaction but the precondition for the pledge right working at all: what is not in the register does not exist for a third party.
What can be pledged
A commercial pledge may cover movable property, corporeal or incorporeal (including claims); an aggregate of such things; or all of a merchant's property.4 Where an aggregate is pledged, the pledge extends to its future components, not only to what it contained when the pledge was created. A single pledge can therefore cover one machine or an entire company's assets.
The law lists the exclusions separately. A ship, a financial instrument booked in a financial instruments account, financial means, and certain payment claims named in the law cannot be the object of a commercial pledge; and where all property or an aggregate is pledged, real estate is deemed excluded from it too.5 A commercial pledge is also not an attachment or a seizure: those are imposed on a company's shares and assets by a court or a bailiff, and the Register of Enterprises publishes them separately.6
What the register entry contains
The entry is not a marker that a pledge exists. The law enumerates what goes into it: the pledgor and the pledgee, the pledge registration number, a description of the pledged property, the sum in euro up to which pledge liability extends, information on deletion, and the date of each entry.7
The sum is what is most often misread. The figure in the register is not the company's debt. It is a ceiling: the parties must fix a maximum sum in the pledge agreement, and any part of the claim above it is an unsecured claim.8
The register records the pledge right itself, not only its object. It carries the pledge manager and the debtor where that is not the pledgor, the pledgee's right to sell the pledged property without auction, and any prohibition on re-pledging it. Two further entries matter most to a creditor: the record of enforcement, which shows whether anyone has already moved against the pledged property, and the pledgee's rank, which shows who stands first in line where the same object is pledged more than once.9
Izlūks compiles registered commercial pledges and shows both the number of pledgors with an active pledge and the latest registrations. Across the fifty most recent, the median secured sum is EUR 144,717.50; individual sums run from EUR 7,455 to EUR 22,750,000.10
How an entry is created and deleted
A commercial pledge is created on the basis of an agreement or a court ruling and then registered. The application is filed electronically through the register keeper's online form and signed by the pledgor; where the application rests on a court ruling, the pledgee signs it.11 Applications are recorded in the order received and examined within five working days; the state fee for registering the creation of a pledge is EUR 42.68.12
Order is not a formality. The same object can carry several commercial pledges, and their priority follows the sequence in which they were entered in the register, not the dates of the agreements.13 Re-pledging is permitted by default; it is barred only where the prohibition follows from an earlier registered pledge agreement, and the register keeper checks for that before making a new entry.
Deletion works the same way in reverse. It is not enough that the basis has ended and the debt is paid: the pledge must be deleted in the register, and the pledgee must file for deletion within five days of the pledge right ending.14 The duty falls on the pledgee, not the pledgor, so a stale entry is more often the creditor's oversight than the company's. The two deadlines also differ: five working days to examine an application, five calendar days to file for deletion.
What a commercial pledge says about a company
A commercial pledge is a security right, not an indicator of distress. Most registered pledges are ordinary financing collateral, and the absence of pledges is not in itself a good sign either: it may mean only that the company has not borrowed against its assets.
Commercial pledges are not common. The register holds 7,874 pledgors with an active pledge, against 220,715 active companies in Latvia. Over the past seven days 64 pledgors registered a new pledge, 318 over the past 30 days and 2,813 over the past year.15
In a specific transaction the entry answers a narrower, more useful question: which assets are already encumbered, up to what sum, and which creditor was entered first. The register also governs how the pledged property may be sold: without auction only where the pledgee's right to do so is recorded there, otherwise at auction. Enforcement itself also begins with an entry.16
If the pledgor enters legal protection proceedings or is declared insolvent, the pledgee's right to enforce is restricted in the manner set by the Insolvency Law.17
Frequently asked questions
Does a commercial pledge mean a company is in financial difficulty? No. A commercial pledge secures a claim and is registered alongside the loan or obligation. Difficulty is signalled by an entry on the exercise of the pledge right, not by the pledge itself.
How long does an entry stay in the register? Until it is deleted. The pledge right ends when the secured claim is satisfied or the parties agree to end it, but the entry disappears only once the pledge is deleted.
Who can see commercial pledge entries? The commercial pledge register is public by law, and its publicity is the Register of Enterprises' duty. Izlūks compiles these entries on the company profile, reachable through company search.
A register entry passes no judgement on a company's condition; it records which assets are already encumbered, and in what order. The next thing worth looking at is not the number of pledges but their dates.
Notes
Footnotes
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A commercial pledge is a pledge right registered in the commercial pledge register in the manner set by this law. The general provisions of the Civil Law on pledge rights apply to a commercial pledge insofar as this law does not provide otherwise. Article 2 of the Commercial Pledge Law (Komercķīlas likums). The law was adopted by the Saeima on 21 October 1998 and has been in force since 1 March 1999; the wording currently in force dates from 20 May 2025. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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If the parties have concluded an agreement on the creation of a commercial pledge but the pledge has not been registered, the pledgee cannot exercise its right and the pledge has no effect against third parties, but the pledge agreement does not lose its force; the pledgee may bring a personal claim against the pledgor, the subject of that claim being registration. Priority for such a pledge is determined from the moment of registration. Article 9(2) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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Entries in the commercial pledge register are binding on third parties, and nobody may plead ignorance of them; in relation to third parties the entries are deemed correct, and third parties have no duty to verify that the entries comply with the law. Article 33 of the Commercial Pledge Law. The register keeper is the Register of Enterprises of the Republic of Latvia (Uzņēmumu reģistrs, UR — Latvia's business registry), which maintains the register and ensures its publicity (Article 1(2)). Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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The object of a commercial pledge may be a movable corporeal or incorporeal thing, including claims, belonging to a merchant or another legal person; an aggregate of such things; or all of the property of a merchant or another legal person. A commercial pledge over an aggregate covers both its existing and its future components, unless it is clearly apparent that the pledgor intended to pledge only the composition the aggregate had when the pledge right was created. Article 3(1) and 3(3) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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The object of a commercial pledge may not be a ship, a financial instrument booked in a financial instruments account, credit claims within the meaning of the Financial Collateral Law, financial means, or a claim arising from a cheque or bill of exchange. Where all property or an aggregate of things is pledged, those claims — together with real estate, ships, financial instruments booked in a financial instruments account, credit claims, and financial means — are deemed excluded from the pledged property. Article 4 of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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Prohibitions, seizures, and attachments on the shares and assets of legal entities are imposed by a court or a sworn bailiff, and the Register of Enterprises maintains and publishes them separately from the commercial pledge register, as securing measures. Source: ur.gov.lv open data. ↩
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The commercial pledge register records the name, legal address, and registration number of the pledgor and the pledgee; the pledge registration number; a description and characterisation of the pledged property as stated in the application; the sum in euro up to which pledge liability extends; information on deletion of the pledge; and the date each entry was made. Article 10(1) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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The parties must fix in the pledge agreement the maximum sum up to which the principal claim and ancillary claims are secured; any part of the claim exceeding the agreed maximum extent of pledge liability is deemed an unsecured claim. Article 7(2) of the Commercial Pledge Law. The figure entered in the register is the sum in euro up to which pledge liability extends (Article 10(1)(4)) — a limit on the security, not an outstanding balance. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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The commercial pledge register additionally records the debtor where that is not the pledgor, and the pledge manager; the pledgee's right to sell the pledged property without auction; a prohibition on taking a pledged land vehicle or its trailer out of Latvia; a prohibition on re-pledging the object of the commercial pledge; the date an application on the exercise of the pledge right was added to the registration file; information on the exercise of the pledge right; and the pledgee's rank where the object is pledged again to another pledgee. Article 10(2) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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Across the fifty most recent registrations the median secured sum is EUR 144,717.50; the lowest is EUR 7,455 and the highest EUR 22,750,000. Izlūks commercial pledge overview; extract 2026-07-29. The register feed does not yet include some recent registrations, so the figures are a conservative minimum. ↩
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A commercial pledge is created on the basis of an agreement or a court ruling and registered in the commercial pledge register in accordance with the requirements of the law (Article 9(1)). The application and the documents to be appended are filed with the register keeper electronically, using the online form indicated by the register keeper; the application is signed by the pledgor, but where it is drawn up on the basis of a court ruling, it is signed by the pledgee. Article 14(1) and 14(2) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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The register keeper records applications received in the order of their submission and examines an application within five working days. Article 15(1) and 15(2) of the Commercial Pledge Law. The state fee for registering the creation of a commercial pledge and its renewal is EUR 42.68; Cabinet Regulation No. 13 of 4 January 2011 on the state fee for registration of a commercial pledge, paragraph 2.1. Where registration is refused the fee is not refunded, but if a corrected application is filed within one month it need not be paid again (Article 15(5)). Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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A pledgor may grant more than one commercial pledge over the same object, provided a prohibition on re-pledging does not follow from a previously registered pledge agreement; the priority of commercial pledges is determined by the sequence in which they are entered in the commercial pledge register. Article 27(1) and 27(2) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Before making a new entry the register keeper satisfies itself that, according to the register entries, there is no prohibition on re-pledging (Article 15(3)(6)). Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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Deleting the basis of a commercial pledge is not enough — the pledge must be deleted in the commercial pledge register. The pledgee has a duty to file an application for deletion with the register keeper within five days of the day the commercial pledge ended. Article 48(2) and 48(3) of the Commercial Pledge Law. These are calendar days; the five-working-day period in Article 15(2) applies to the examination of a different application and is not the same clock. Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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7,874 pledgors have an active commercial pledge; over the past seven days 64 pledgors registered a new commercial pledge, 318 over the past 30 days, and 2,813 over the past 365 days. Izlūks commercial pledge overview; extract 2026-07-29. The counts are of unique pledgors, not of individual pledges, and are a conservative minimum because the register feed does not yet include some recent registrations. Active companies: 220,715; Izlūks registry-state extract 2026-07-29. The set of pledgors also includes other legal persons and farm holdings, so the ratio is an approximation. ↩
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Where the pledgor has not granted the pledgee the right to sell the pledged property without auction, the property is to be sold at auction in accordance with Article 2073 and subsequent articles of the Civil Law; the pledgee announces the auction in the official gazette Latvijas Vēstnesis and in at least one other newspaper no later than one month before the auction date (Article 37(1) and 37(2)). The pledgee may sell without auction where the pledgor has granted that right and the right is registered in the commercial pledge register (Article 38(1)). The pledgee may sell without the intermediation of a court only after an entry on the exercise of the commercial pledge right has been made in the register (Article 43(1)). Source: likumi.lv. ↩
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Where legal protection proceedings are initiated against the pledgor or insolvency proceedings are declared, the pledgee's rights to exercise the commercial pledge right are restricted in the manner set by the Insolvency Law (Maksātnespējas likums). Article 36(4) of the Commercial Pledge Law. Source: likumi.lv. This article explains the public register and the legal framework; it is not legal advice. ↩