Banks disapprove of the proposed measure to limit commissions when making settlements by transfer. Under the bill, commissions or other payments charged by payment service providers in Moldova shall not exceed 0.1% of the amount transacted by transfer, including for cash withdrawals. The objections to the new provisions were presented during public consultations organized by the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Budget and Finance.
Dorel Noroc, president of the Moldovan Association of Banks, said that the banks do not see this limitation as appropriate. “For a payment made from one bank account to another bank account, for the purchase of an apartment or car, the maximum commission is 20 lei, regardless of the amount paid. If mobile applications are used, this commission is a maximum of 10 lei. We do not see it appropriate to introduce a limit of 0.1%, which is, I think, hundreds of times higher than the commission that the NBM now sets. Our proposal is that this article be excluded altogether, or at least leave this matter to be established by the NBM”, said Dorel Noroc.
According to him, another problem concerns the withdrawal of cash. “This fee creates losses for the banks, because they pay a much higher fee for cash to the NBM. It is impossible for banks to delimit the amount coming from these transactions and apply this fee. Banks now implement interaction through ATMs, where people withdraw their money. In bank accounts there can be different sources of income – sale of house, car, salaries. It is impossible to delimit this amount”, said Noroc.
He also spoke about the provisions according to which legal entities must provide for the next three working days the amount of money necessary to make cash payments. “It is mentioned that the cash that exceeds the minimum requirement is deposited to the payment account opened with the payment service provider. What is a bank to do when it has extra cash by the three days it has forecasted, where are they deposited? To which payment company, itself being a payment company. What is currently happening at banks, they set maximum limits for the use of cash, because banks don’t like cash, it costs money”, said Dorel Noroc.
The participants in the consultations are to formulate proposals on the bill and submit them to the Committee for examination.
