New Regulations Set to Reshape Romania’s Financial Landscape: An Overview

Romania’s financial regulatory authorities have been actively shaping the country’s financial sector through various new regulations. Here’s an overview of some key developments.

Romanian Government: Ecological Financial Instruments (December 14, 2023)

The Romanian government passed new rules on ecological financial instruments focused on loans, guarantees, counter-guarantees, mezzanine investments, and more. These instruments are being aligned with the EU’s taxonomy criteria outlined in Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (European Parliament and Council - Taxonomy Regulation).

Key Features

• Financial support is conditional on certain economic activities that either contribute substantially to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation or cause no significant harm to other environmental objectives.
• Independent evaluators verify compliance with these sustainability principles.
• Issuers must disclose pre-issuance information sheets and post-issuance impact reports on their websites.

More details can be found in the Romanian regulation (here).

National Bank of Romania (NBR): Payment Incidents Registry (December 11, 2023)

The NBR introduced a new regulation for the Payment Incidents Registry (PIR), managing a database containing incidents related to checks, promissory notes, and bills of exchange.

Reporting Entities

• Must report major and minor payment incidents.
• In the case of major check-related incidents causing banking restrictions, they must notify the payer.

The text of the regulation is available in Romanian (here).

Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA): Investment Firm Practices (October 20, 2023)

The FSA published new guidelines for investment firms reflecting and implementing ESMA guidelines on MiFID II suitability requirements.

Key Changes

• Redefined distinction between active and inactive clients.
• Clarification of investment firm obligations to review business continuity plans.
• Removal of prudential requirements due to Law no. 236/2022.
• Other related aspects.

More details can be found in the Romanian regulation text (here).

National Bank of Romania (NBR): Exchange Regulation Amendments (August 7, 2023)

The NBR amended the exchange regulation requiring certain financial entities to monitor compliance with exchange control requirements.

Entities Affected

• Credit institutions.
• e-Money issuers.
• Payment institutions.
• Non-banking financial institutions.
• Romanian branches of foreign institutions.

These entities must ensure transactions between Romanian residents are carried out in the Romanian currency, leu. The text of the newly released regulation is available in Romanian (here).