Amcham is concerned about the legislative initiative of limiting the merchant discount fee charged by banks to SMEs.
Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova (Amcham) have sent a letter to the leadership of the country, the National Bank and the Competition Council, expressing concern about the legislative initiative of MP Dumitru Alajba limiting the amount of bank charges levied for payments made by the SME sector’s companies. As InfoMarket Agency earlier reported, the legislative initiative includes amendments to one of the provisions of Article 15 of the Law on Banks Activity. According to the draft, banks will not be able to charge more than 0.5% of the value of payment transactions carried out by a payment card from micro, small and medium-sized businesses, regardless of the type of card. If this value exceeds the amount of 5 lei, the maximum applicable fee will be 5 lei. Amcham notes that merchant discount fee/MDF (the fee that the financial institution servicing the plastic card charges the merchant holder for each transaction paid with the card) is the basis of a healthy and sustainable digital payments ecosystem. The organization says that the regulation of MDFs is unjustified and creates a favorable ground for the shadow economy, and setting upper limits for MDFs in Moldova and in other countries has proved ineffective. Amcham states that limiting the size of MDFs restricts competition and undermines banking operations, does not comply with EU regulations and can damage the image of Moldova. In its letter Amcham proposes alternative solutions applied at international level: obligation to connect POS-terminals to merchants that reach a certain volume of transactions (Ukraine); creation of a target for banks on the annual number of merchants served (Saudi Arabia); providing incentives in the form of reduced import duties on technology and equipment, such as POS-terminals; providing tax incentives in the form of VAT or tax reduction for cashless transactions for 3-5 years, etc. // 14.06.2022 – InfoMarket
