RALUCA MICU, Head of Payments Oversight Division, ROMANIAN NATIONAL BANK: 1 in 4 users pay with cards through digital wallets

We are in the middle of an ongoing new way of doing banking. The numbers so far show a move towards digital banking, a big move to the use of digital banking instruments, bringing Romania closer to Europe also this way.

The state of the past six months shows that:

• Banks gain a lot of a lot of digital customers in the last 5 months. This pandemic crisis brought a lot of opportunities for banks and other payment services providers. Users and clients are more used to use digital methods.

In terms of payments, we have seen a decrease in values of payments altogether, especially for cross-border payments due to the restrictions and uncertantity.

Some key figures in the months with restrictions in term of payments are:

•             1 in 4 users pay with cards through digital wallets;

•             1 in 3 transactions in April was online.

Our main focus at National Bank of Romania is to find ways in which we can support the banking system in Romania, so that banks could face, cope and perform within the current international financial context. was with the banks to support them, to face all the difficulties in the actual context. During this year, BNR developed a package of measures for the banking system to better respond to the negative effects of pandemic. Out main focus is now related to payments and payment services providers.

Also, the National Bank of Romania engaged in a direct dialogue with fintech companies and  kept  the communication channels open. We expressed our availability to support the innovative ideas.

For banks, especially for traditional financial organizations, the main challenge is related to the compliance with the regulations. Then GDPR change the ecosystem and the sharing the data with the clients – is also a challenge. The main challenge for banks to comply with the regulations and to try to be competitive, to develop new payment solutions – that have to be user friendly and from regulators’ perspective, have to be strong and secure.

The fintech depends a lot in which way they provide their solutions and they are technologically agile but the compliance requirements for them are still untouchable. The regulators – try to regulate the newcomers and payment solutions providers, to ensure a fair market and with the same risks and rules for all players.  We launched FinTech Innovation Hub a year ago – a channel to communicate and support the innovations. We tried to have direct dialogue with entities subscribed in the hub and accommodate them to the compliance requirements when it comes to financial services.

The statement has been uttered within the recently held web conference dedicated to Digital Transformation Conference – Fintech & Banking.

The event benefitted from the support of DIAMOND PARTNER Wipro Limited, GOLD PARTNERS ACCA, Inform Lykos, OTP Bank, STRATEGIC PARTNERS ARB (Romanian Association of Banks), CIO Council, ARIR (Romanian Investor Relations Association),  PARTNERS Arval, Sea One, Wave, WITH THE SUPPORT of ANIS, Cluj IT, FabLab Iasi, and MEDIA PARTNERS Outsourcing Today, Financial Intelligence, Economistul, Romania Durabila, Club Economic and Pin Magazine.

BANKING AND FINTECH are transformed by the digital revolution that gives this industry a chance to rethink its models, to better address the new consumer’s demands and needs, to better communicate and anticipate its behavior. However, the transformation of organizations is an undergoing process and the fintech companies play a major role in pushing the process forward. The use of emerging technologies – Analytical, Big data, cloud, Internet of Things, Blockchain, omnichanneling are not anymore new concepts but daily working tools in banking and fintech companies.