In January, the ministry announced plans to cap the interbank fees charged on debit and credit card transactions to 0.2% and 0.3% on each transaction, respectively. This would translate into a reduction of 50% to 90% of the current interchange fees.
While the retailers welcomed the project and said the ministry should step up the implementation process, bankers and card processors argued the move would be premature and the interchange fees should be lowered gradually, potentially in two steps.
At the end of February, Dan Manolescu, a state secretary with the finance ministry said that Romania is considering a two-step reduction of inter-bank fees for card payments, following a series of appeals to the Finance Ministry from businesses and card processors, who requested a new assessment of proposed fee levels or even a delay of the reduction process.
European Commission will reduce interbank fees for cross-border transactions to 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards, then, two years after the implementation of the draft, the fees cut will be applied to domestic debit and credit card transactions.
According to central bank data, there were 14.1 million active cards in Romania at the end of 2013, of which 11 million were debit cards, according to central bank’s data.