The Parliament decided not to charge fees for up to ten monthly cash withdrawals from a payment account for basic operations at an ATM or POS terminal device of the servicing bank, dariknews.bg reported.
The amendment to the Payment Services and Payment Systems Act was adopted on second reading unanimously with 150 votes "for".
According to the voted amendments, the consumer will be able to initiate up to three credit transfers per month, including through the online banking systems of the servicing bank, for which no fees are charged.
A payment account for basic operations is an account in which funds from labor salaries, pensions, social security and social assistance benefits, scholarships for students, undergraduates and doctoral students and the interest on them. No fees are charged for regular account servicing.
Initially, it was proposed that up to three withdrawals from the servicing bank's ATM would be exempt from fees. Atanas Atanasov („BSP – United Left“) pointed out that the people who use such accounts are pensioners, students and scholarship holders. In his words, up to three withdrawals are few. He noted that after a conversation with the banking association, it became clear that withdrawals from such accounts do not exceed ten and proposed a corresponding change in the law, which met with support in the plenary hall.
The initial proposal of the left for an unlimited number of withdrawals without fees was rejected.
Dimo Drenchev („Vazrazhdane“) commented that the account for students and pensioners is "the nail in this bill". He proposed to have the possibility of at least 30 withdrawals without fees, but his proposal was rejected.
The adopted amendments to the Payment Services and Payment Systems Act adapt the national legal framework regulating payment supervision and the provision of payment services for the period after Bulgaria's accession to the euro area.
The changes achieve compliance with the rules of the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer (TARGET) system and ensure the effective implementation by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) of the Eurosystem Framework for the oversight of electronic payment instruments, schemes and agreements.
The amendments state that the Bulgarian National Bank is the operator of a system component (TARGET-BNB) of the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer (TARGET). It is planned that from the date of the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria it will be discontinued the functioning of the BNB-operated real-time gross settlement payment system RINGS.