The launch of the FinTech Innovation Hub project
The National Bank of Romania has announced the launch of the FinTech Innovation Hub project, a platform for dialogue with companies developing innovative public interest solutions in the area of payment and financial services (FinTech).
Thus, the NBR aims to support the market developments in payment and financial services as well as to bring innovation monitoring into line with European trends in the area of payment services and payment instruments, in order to ensure their security and safety.
The FinTech Innovation Hub initiative will focus on encouraging and supporting innovation in payments and payment instruments, in a controlled manner and for the benefit of consumers and businesses, while seeking at the same time to identify the potential risks involved, as well as to propose measures to manage them.
Companies that are directly involved in the development of innovative payment services solutions can start a dialogue with the NBR experts with a view to presenting their FinTech innovation projects or to receiving guidance on the compliance of such services and products.
Draft law on business incubators and accelerators
At the meeting of September 12, the Romanian Government approved the draft law on business incubators and accelerators, in order to change the existing legal framework, to support the companies in the initial stages of development. The project was initiated by the Ministry for Business, Trade and Entrepreneurship and will be submitted for approval to the Romanian Parliament.
According to the project, the business incubator is defined as follows: “Support structure for business development that offers a space and an adequate infrastructure for residents, managed by an administrator, which aims to create a favorable, sustainable environment for newly established small and medium-sized enterprises, stimulating their potential for development and viability, helping them to develop in the beginning period by providing common facilities and managerial support”. While, „business accelerator” has the following definition: „Program developed within the business incubator, which provides residents, in stages, access to financing sources, for the purpose of launching on the market, within 3 to 6 months, of a product or service. The program may include entrepreneurial education, mentoring and networking activities, in order to grow the business rapidly”.
Project – national development banks
The Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) has elaborated a draft normative act that regulates the general conditions for setting up and functioning of the national development banks, which are constituted and function as credit institutions according to the provisions of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 99/2006 on credit institutions and capital adequacy and EU Regulation no. 575/2013, of the regulations issued by the National Bank of Romania in their application, as well as of other applicable normative acts.
The purpose of creating the national development banks in Romania is to directly address the financial market dysfunctions and financing gaps, based on an independent ex-ante analysis, in order to mitigate and reduce them by carrying out development activities, in accordance with the applicable European Union law and with the articles of association of each development bank.
Development banks provide financing under market conditions and act in conjunction with credit institutions in order to remedy the financing deficit and financial market malfunctions.
Brexit preparedness checklist
The European Commission has published a detailed checklist to help those businesses doing business in the EU and/or in the United Kingdom (UK) to double-check their state of preparedness for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU without a withdrawal agreement. In order to minimise disruption to trade, all parties involved in supply chains with the UK – regardless of where they are based – should be aware of their responsibilities and the necessary formalities in cross-border trade. This builds on previous Communications and 100 stakeholder notices, which cover a broad range of sectors.
In addition to this, the Commission has proposed to the European Parliament and the Council to make targeted technical adjustments to the duration of the EU’s ‘no-deal’ contingency measures in the area of transport. The Commission has also proposed to mirror, for the year 2020, the existing 2019 contingency arrangements for the fisheries sector and for the UK’s potential participation in the EU budget for 2020. These measures are necessary given the decision to extend the Article 50 period to 31 October 2019.