Moldovan banks are against limiting the commission fee charged from SMEs (merchant fee).
Representatives of commercial banks, international payment systems, business associations expressed this opinion during public consultations organized on Tuesday on a legislative initiative to limit the merchant fee (a commission that a financial institution servicing a plastic card charges from the owner of a merchant for each transaction paid by a card). The draft provides that banks will not be able to charge from micro, small and medium-sized businesses a fee of more than 0.5% of the cost of a payment transaction carried out by a payment card, regardless of the type of card, and if this cost exceeds the amount of 5 lei, the maximum applicable it is proposed to limit the commission fee to 5 lei. As Dumitru Alaiba, the author of the bill, explained, such a restriction will be an important support for SMEs, which today pay large commissions. However, representatives of the banking community did not support this initiative, noting that it should be studied in more depth, including due to the lack of an analysis of the impact of regulation and given the rather short implementation timeframe (from 2023). The head of the payments department of the National Bank, Victor Susu, said that the NBM gave a negative opinion on the bill, noting that in general the regulator believes that such restrictions should be taken with great care. Victor Cibotaru, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Moldindconbank, noted that the banking sector works in conditions of free competition and spoke out against the limitation of fees. At the same time, he referred to the experience of Hungary, where such restrictions had the opposite effect on SMEs. Maib First Vice-President Aliona Stratan suggested using the services of an independent consultant to assess how, what and in what terms the merchant fee restriction can be implemented, to what extent this tool can favorably affect the development of non-cash payments, to what extent it will facilitate the activities of SMEs and how it will affect competition. Aliona Stratan believes that such an analysis will make it possible to make a reasoned and balanced decision, and it must be carried out before the bill is considered in parliament. Representatives of banks also pointed to disagreements in the legislation regarding the interpretation of SMEs and spoke in favor of conducting an examination of the compliance of the draft law with European standards. Representatives of VISA and MasterCard noted that the commission fee is the main income for participants in the card business (issuers and acquirers), and the increase in the merchant fee will negatively affect plans for the development of non-cash payments, a sector that still requires significant investment. VISA representative Sergiu Stoianov emphasized the underdevelopment of cashless in Moldova, where the penetration rate of cashless payments is only 16%, while in other countries it is much higher: in Ukraine - 30%, in Georgia - 31%, in the Scandinavian countries - 95%. According to him, first of all, it is necessary to accustom the population to use bank cards. // 19.07.2022- InfoMarket.
