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The Bank of Albania will reduce commissions for bank transfers

2025-07-18 07:34:00, Ekonomi CNA

The Bank of Albania has prepared several changes to the framework that regulates the functioning of the payment systems administered by it.

Among other things, the changes to the regulations provide for further reductions in the commissions that banking sector customers will pay for money transfers they will make between different financial institutions.

In the new draft regulation "On the functioning of the small value payment clearing system - AECH", the Bank of Albania proposes that for outgoing payments ordered by clients of participants and transferred through the AECH system, but initiated electronically, with a value less than or equal to 40 thousand lek, no commissions should be applied.

Currently, the maximum amount exempted from commissions for transfers made electronically (through internet banking or mobile banking services) is 20 thousand lekë. Doubling the amount of transfers exempted from bank commissions further facilitates the execution of small-value payments and transfers in the Albanian economy.

The draft regulation also provides for a reduction in commissions for transfers of larger amounts, scaled up in several amounts. The price of commissions applied by financial institutions to their clients, for all payment orders originating through AECH with a value of from 40 thousand lek to 1 million lek, should not be higher than 100 lek.

Under the current framework, transfers up to a value of 1.5 million lek have a ceiling commission of up to 500 lek for transfers made at branches and 250 lek for transfers made via internet banking.

The draft regulation provides that the price of commissions applied to outgoing transfers with a value of more than 1 million lek up to 5 million lek should not be higher than 500 lek. Currently, transfers with a value higher than 1.5 million lek may pay a ceiling commission of up to 1500 lek (750 lek via e-banking).

For transfers greater than 5 million lek up to a value of 10 million lek, the draft regulation proposes a ceiling commission of 1 thousand lek.

While the price of commissions applied for payments greater than 10 million lek up to the level of 15 million lek should not be higher than 1400 lek.

The new draft regulation also maintains the obligation to apply a 50% commission level for transfers made through internet banking.

For outgoing payments that are initiated electronically (e-banking), with a value greater than 40 thousand lek, the commissions should not be greater than 50% of the commissions applied for payments initiated non-electronically.

For example, all transfers made through e-banking up to a value of 1 million lek cannot be charged by banks and financial institutions with a commission higher than 50 lek.

The changes to the regulatory framework of the Bank of Albania's payment systems have been drafted at a time when work is being done to establish a national instant payments system, according to the TIPS model that the Bank of Italy will offer./ Monitor Magazine