Banks waive the increase in bank fees on cash transactions

Banking commissions will not increase in Romania, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced after the working meeting he had last night with the representatives of the banking system in our country.

Marcel Ciolacu said: "Banking fees will not increase in Romania, neither for individuals nor for legal entities. This is the agreement we reached today with the Romanian Association of Banks and with the representatives of the most important banks in Romania, but also with those of the BNR. I am glad that the arguments presented were fully understood and I thank them for opening the dialogue. Dialogue is the way we can find the best solutions for both people and the economy".

Yesterday's meeting at Victoria Palace took place after several banks announced last week that they would increase fees for cash deposits or withdrawals from 1 January 2024, in the context of limiting cash payments/receipts between legal entities, between legal entities and natural persons and between natural persons.

Among the banks that had initially announced that they would increase the commissions on cash transactions was Banca Transilvania, which yesterday, before the meeting with the head of the Government, reverted to the initial decision and informed that it was postponing the increase in the respective commissions.

A statement from the respective bank states: "BT has decided to postpone, for the time being, any increase in cash transaction fees. BT's measures were discussed and analyzed internally a long time ago, given that for three years there have been no increases, and the processing costs for cash and the maintenance of used machines have been constantly increasing."

The bank claims to have the largest network of ATMs in Romania (1,850, of which over 1,000 are located in small and medium-sized towns, including rural areas), over 500 units (almost all of which process cash) and a network of acceptance consisting of over 120,000 POS terminals. BT also reports that it has increased the number of ATMs and maintained the number of units operating in cash, given that many banks have decided to limit these operations, thus ending up processing over 100 billion lei annually.

The measure to limit cash payments was criticized by the former prime minister Nicolae Ciucă, the president of the PNL, and the liberal parliamentarians have already submitted two legislative initiatives: one that was submitted last week by the former finance minister Alexandru Nazare aims to return to the old cash ceilings, and another submitted yesterday by PNL vice-president Adrian Cozma and deputy Robert Sighiartău even refers to the repeal of the limitation of cash payments/receipts.