There is a growing trend of initiatives aimed at the use of cash, said Alexandru Peunescu, legal director of BNR, at a specialized conference on Friday, citing the example of the Central Banks of Germany and Denmark, which provide access to cash extremely important role.

Cyber ​​threats also make transaction security coverage quite expensive. “Cash remains a major part of the financial system, especially where electronic payment infrastructure is underdeveloped or financial literacy is low. Although technology is advancing rapidly and we are seeing an increase in the number of electronic payments, access to cash remains a problem for many people. Especially if we think about people with visual impairments or people with a low level of financial literacy,” Peunescu said.

Cash – whether it is used to buy things or to save – is important to those categories of people who simply believe in using money for such things. The fact that I can physically feel the money in my pocket gives it importance and more social and cultural significance than the money on the card.

“Payment in cash may be limited by some states for reasons of public interest, but without abolishing cash,” says the head of the legal department of the BNR, who gave the example of France: there the ceiling for cash payments made by the consumer is 1,000 euros.

“If this limit is exceeded, a fine of up to 5% of the amount paid over the limit is applied, which is shared between the consumer and the seller who accepted the payment. In Slovakia, the maximum cash settlement amount is EUR 5,000 for both merchant-to-merchant and consumer-to-merchant transactions. As for individuals, the maximum limit is 15,000 euros,” says Peunescu.

There are also countries without such ceilings. For example, in Germany there are no restrictions on cash payments, but merchants accepting payments over €10,000 must identify the buyer. In the case of Ireland, although there are no restrictions at the level of legislation, there are some restrictions in practice at the level of traders.

The number of states where there are no restrictions on cash payments is quite small; you can mention the case of the Netherlands, but there people usually pay by card, regardless of whether it is a small shop or a large merchant. Austria, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Iceland are also countries that do not have established limits for cash payments at the European Union level.

How are things in Romania – initiatives that could be placed in a rather electoral context

The European Central Bank has recently adopted a series of opinions on projects that aimed either to limit cash payments for public social insurance contributions (the case of Slovakia) or to exclude the possibility of buying real estate with cash – the case of Greece. There have been some initiatives aimed at affecting access to cash, more precisely at reducing the geographical coverage of ATMs or reducing cashier service in bank branches: France, Hungary and the Netherlands.

There are 3 bills pending in the Senate regarding the fate of cash, the latest being the one AUR filed before Christmas. The project has a negative conclusion of the NBR, but this does not prevent it from going through the entire legislative process.

Liberals submit another project a month before the AUR project, which is also negatively approved by the NBR, but continues its legislative course.

Finally, the third approach belongs to the USR, presented at about the same time as the approach of the Social Democrats.

The role of a traditional central bank is to ensure that there is enough cash in the economy so that the economy can function within normal parameters.

“It is also worth noting the inconsistency of existing legislative initiatives with the current regulatory framework. It doesn’t really take into account what exists. They simply issue some draft regulations that do not apply to what is at the moment. Draft regulations are issued as a reaction to other drafts. Many initiatives at the national level at different stages of the legislative process are aimed at different aspects of the same nematic act, either they clash or are not correlated, they risk creating a situation of legislative inconsistency and instability, which clearly contradicts the principle of legal security,” says Alexandru Peunescu

In Romania, there were recently 3 legislative initiatives aimed at Law 70/2015, either in the sense of its complete repeal or in the sense of changing the limits in force for cash transactions. These initiatives, especially the one concerning the repeal of Law No. 70, could be placed in a rather electoral context. One of the initiatives involved a return to the optimized maximum limits by increasing the previously established limits without taking into account the realities of today. Both were rejected by the Senate, Peunescu says.

The topic of other initiatives on the Senate agenda is to increase the existing limits. The change in this case is motivated by the need to correlate the value of the established limit values ​​with the requirements of modern economic realities. It is desirable to increase from 5,000 lei to 10,000 lei per person for receipts, respectively from 10,000 to 20,000 per person for payments.

It should be noted that the issue of banning cash payments has never been raised either in Romania or in any EU country, says Peunescu.

A report published by the BNR, the currency-issuing institution, shows that although the number of ATMs per 100,000 inhabitants is comparable to other countries in the region, national characteristics (a high percentage of the rural population that mainly uses cash) require a gradual transition to digital payment solutions, maintaining a proper presence on the territory.

Iserescu: I came to Sweden and asked how things are going with the cashless society. He tells me: “Gone!” They made it softer

A few years ago, the governor of the BNR explained that in the culture in which we were formed, we like to physically feel money in our pockets, and we hold the accumulation function in high esteem. Iserescu recently mentioned the example of Sweden, which is spreading a cashless society.

“I heard that physical money is disappearing. When the Bank of Sweden, the oldest central bank, celebrated 300 years, they said that Sweden would become the first country to go cashless. I come there and ask how things are going with the cashless society. He tells me: “Gone!” They made it softer. They told me that they have about 2 million pensioners who want to continue paying in cash,” said Mugur Iserescu. “This is bau bau-ri, and Madame Lagarde said very clearly that a large part of the population prefers to pay with banknotes,” the governor of the BNR also said