Banks to drop bill payment at their counters

Big banks are one after another starting to no longer accept payment of utilities at their counters, in an attempt to reduce crowding. BCR, the biggest bank on the market, with one of the largest networks in the country, has recently decided to refuse payments in cash for bills issued by the mobile telephony operator Orange. “We are trying to educate the population to make it cut back on using cash,” says Cornel Cojocaru, spokesman of the BCR. As far back as 2005, Raiffeisen Bank, the third largest bank on the market, stopped accepting payment of utility bills at the counter, in return proposing alternative methods to its clients – the Internet banking system, transfers made through ATMs or over the phone. Bank officials believe the method was effective, reducing the waiting time for other customers at the counter.