With the Law on Interbank Fees and Special Business Rules Related to Payment Cards, which will be applied from today (January 9th), the market for payment cards in Montenegro is fully regulated.
The Central Bank (CBCG) announced that this establishes equal rights, obligations, and opportunities for all participants, while limiting the amount of interbank fees contributes to reducing costs for card payment transactions.
“The new regulation addresses the issue of currently present different interbank fees for payment cards and establishes a limitation on the amount of interbank fees. Instead of the previous range of 0.3% to 2.3% for debit card payments, banks will not be allowed to charge merchants an interbank fee exceeding 0.2% of the transaction value, or 0.3% for credit card payments,” the statement said.
The CBCG stated that it is expected that this limitation will lead to lower merchant fees, indirectly creating conditions for reducing the prices of goods and services for consumers.
“The new law will also ensure comparability of fees that make up the merchant fee, as well as greater transparency in the business relationship between banks, merchants, and consumers, i.e., better consumer awareness, with additional incentives for the use of non-cash payments,” the statement said.
Positive effects of the new law will also be felt by merchants, especially small and medium-sized businesses, which, due to greater transparency and lower interbank fees, will be able to negotiate a reduction in the total merchant fee with their banks.
In anticipation of the new law, the Central Bank has prepared the CBCG Guide for Merchants, which provides further clarification of the benefits of this law.
