The National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced Monday, Sept 23, the launch of a new platform that will increase the bank’s interaction with the Fintech Innovation Hub, the country’s fintech sector.
In a press release, the bank describes the new service as “a platform for dialogue with companies developing innovative public interest solutions in the area of payment and financial services (FinTech).” With the said service, active start-ups and firms that are directly involved in developing innovative fintech solutions can start a dialogue with the BNR experts by filling in a standard form.
“The innovative and full-fledged projects will be analysed and the applicants may receive feedback by e-mail, telephone or in face-to-face meetings in order to receive guidelines on the implementation of innovative solutions in the area of payment and financial services,” explained the bank on its site.
According to a report from Intellinews, the recent launch follows the implementation of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which mandates that banks, with the consent of their customers, must open up their customer data to third party firms. The new arrangement comes as a way to give non-banking firms the chance to compete with banks in the payments business.
“Through the FinTech Innovation Hub, the National Bank of Romania seeks to create a safe environment for the development of innovations in payment services, which will support its mission of maintaining the stability of the banking and financial system and at the same time increasing financial inclusion, by facilitating access for consumers and businesses to payment services and other secure, efficient and convenient financial services, according to their needs,” the press release explained.
With the launch of the new platform, the National Bank of Romania has now established a point of contact which will enable fintech companies to ask questions concerning fintech innovative solutions or request non-binding guidelines and legal requirements related to innovative products and services.
