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New regulations come into effect, cheaper and same-day bank transfers

2025-09-17 07:42:59, Ekonomi CNA

At the beginning of this week, new regulations of the Bank of Albania entered into force, which foresee the reduction of national transfers in Lek and Euro.

The Bank of Albania has decided that for outgoing payments initiated electronically, with a value less than or equal to 40 thousand lekë, banks or other payment institutions should not apply commissions. Under the previous regulation, this limit was 20 thousand lekë. Doubling the value of transfers that are exempt from bank commissions further facilitates the execution of small-value payments and transfers in the Albanian economy.

The regulation also provides for a reduction in commissions for transfers of larger amounts, scaled up to several amounts. The price of commissions applied by financial institutions to their clients, for all outgoing payment orders with a value of 40 thousand lek to 1 million lek, should not be higher than 100 lek. With the previous regulation, transfers up to the value of 1.5 million lek had a ceiling commission of up to 500 lek for transfers made in branches and 250 lek for transfers made via internet banking.

The new regulation stipulates 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. With the previous regulation, transfers with a value higher than 1.5 million lek could 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 regulation sets a maximum commission ceiling 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 regulation also maintains the obligation to apply a 50% commission level for transfers made through internet banking.

For outgoing payments 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.

Similarly, the Bank of Albania has also decided to reduce commissions for national transfers in Euros. The total commission for each transfer worth up to 150 thousand euros cannot be higher than 0.02% of the transferred value. Under the previous regulation, the maximum commission was 10 times higher, at 0.2%.

As with transfers in Lek, the regulation for transfers in Euro will also stimulate the use of electronic channels for making transfers, by providing for halved commissions for operations carried out through these channels.

The minimum commission that banks can apply for national transfers in European currency, carried out via e-banking, cannot be higher than 2 euros (for paper transfers the minimum commission can be 6 euros). While the total commissions for each transfer worth up to 150 thousand euros cannot be higher than 0.01% of the transferred value.

Meanwhile, the maximum commissions that banks can apply, regardless of the transfer amount, are proposed to be the same as in the current regulation, namely 50 euros for transfers made at branches and 25 euros for those initiated through electronic channels.

In addition to reducing commissions, the new regulatory framework also imposes on banks the obligation to finalize national transfers within one business day. Under the previous regulation, national transfers between different banks took one business day. / Monitor