Romania’s Govt. approves cash payment limits, but Parliament approval still needed

The draft law on capping cash payments and interchange fees was approved by the Romanian government on Wednesday, April 2, and sent to the Parliament for approval. In a statement, the government informs that the “cash payment limit extends to other economic operators than legal entities, namely authorized individuals, individual enterprises, family businesses, freelancers, individuals carrying out activities independently, associations or other entities with or without legal status”. The maximum daily ceiling is of RON 5,000 (some EUR 1,100) per person, but no more than a total ceiling of RON 10,000 (around 2,200) per day. Also, the daily cash payments or receipts are limited to RON 5,000 per person for operations performed between companies and individuals. These could represent the assignment of receivables or other rights, refunds or granting of loans, or other funding. Cash receipt operations from individuals to companies will be limited to a daily ceiling of RON 10,000 per person, which means Romanians will not be able to pay in cash for any product above RON 10,000. The draft law also includes a ceiling on cash receipts and payments between individuals, by establishing a daily cap of RON 10,000 per transaction. The new regulation also sets sanctions to be applied to those not respecting the new capping, namely fines amounting to 25 percent of the amounts paid/received that exceed the limits. The draft law also introduces, for banks, the obligation to comply with the interchange fees provided by the law, and sets a maximum of 0.2 percent for debit cards, and 0.3 percent for credit cards. “The accepting institutions are required to include in the agreements with payment beneficiaries detailed information on the amount of charges for the provided services, on interchange fees, as well as on additional fees applied depending on the brand and category of the payment cards,” reads the statement. The full Government statement (in Romanian) is here. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-jnsider.com