Amendment Law Concerning the Payment System in Romania

Bucharest, 22 November 2016

On 14 November 2016, an amended law was published relating to the introduction of modern payment systems. The amendments are applicable starting with 1 January 2017.

The main issues that are dealt with are that:

• the economic entities which have the obligation to accept payments via debit and credit cards, will include all entities, which provide public utility services, as well as to public institutions that collect taxes, penalties, interests, late payment penalties and other liabilities;
• the annual turnover threshold for the legal entities which carry out retail activities, which are obliged to accept payments via debit and credit cards – from EUR 100,000 (RON equivalent) to EUR 10,000 (RON equivalent);
• in case of the systems for granting cash advances at payment terminals, the merchants can charge a commission for providing this service to the cardholder, which cannot exceed 1% of the amount of the granted advance cash; and
• the banks are obliged to install payment terminals at their location within maximum 30 days from the date of request of any client.