The issue of creating an electronic payment system in Romania, which is both efficient and easy to use, stirred a heated debate at the “e-Finance” conference organised by Piata Financiara at World Trade Center on Wednesday.
The officials attending the conference include: IT&C minister Dan Nica, Varujan Pambuccian, chairman of the IT&C Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, and Mugur Isarescu, National Bank of Romania Governor.
The authorities stressed on legislation to prevent crimes committed with IT equipment, as well, since Romania is one of the top players when it comes to hacking and credit card fraud, with foreign citizens as victims.
Moreover, although more and more banks are catching up and try to provide credit or debit card services, this electronic payment system in Romania is not working as well as it does in the rest of Europe.
“It is completely outrageous that when you want to use your credit card to pay, you should get turned down by eight in ten POS (stores, restaurants etc.) displaying a “credit or debit cards accepted” sign because they either don’t actually take plastic or say you haven’t got enough money in your account,” minister Nica said.
Romania still has banks which are not interested in providing a card service, while NBR should seriously consider whether such banks being allowed to operate on the market do not compromise the introduction of a viable electronic payment system, the minister added.
“Paying with plastic rules out tax fraud and other illegal operations, as well. This is why we should encourage the use of this system by proposing the Finance Ministry that those companies operating solely on credit cards should no longer be subjected to controls by the financial guard or other such bodies,” Nica says.
Furthermore, a law not to allow delays in reimbursement operations conducted between banks should be drafted, and stipulate extremely severe penalties: the guilty bank should pay a 100% penalty for the sum it has to transfer for being late only one day, while the penalty should reach 300% in case it is late with reimbursement for three days, for instance and so on, Nica feels.
“It is not the penalties, but the bankruptcies which are at issue here,” Isarescu retorted. The banking institution falling behind on its payment deadlines has to be sure that the capital punishment, namely bankruptcy, actually works.
Or else things might end up like in Banca Dacia Felix’s case, which had come to ignore the penalties, although they accounted for half of its debt to NBR. It is not the penalties that should be harsh, but the bankruptcies, explained Isarescu, adding:
“It’s no secret that the banks are deliberately postponing payments to make sure they have one more resource available. We need an electronic payment system, though, because payment by the bag shows evasion and other illegal operations, as well.”