Vice Governor Nacevska: The new Law on Payment Services strengthens the consumer rights protection

Skopje, 6 February 2023

"The new Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems, the application of which began since the beginning of the year, increased the protection of the rights of payment service users. The payment service providers undertake to regulate the rights and obligations of consumers with a standardized framework agreement, the conclusion of which shall be preceded by a submission of fee information document, as well as a report on paid fees at least once a year. The providers will also be required to regularly provide data on the amount of fees for the most representative payment account-related services to the National Bank, which will be available to citizens on the National Bank website on a comparison base. Additional protection in the area of unauthorized transactions is also projected" pointed out the Vice Governor Emilija Nacevska in an interview for MIA.

"The new regulatory framework clearly regulates the obligations of the payment service providers in the segments of consumer rights protection which arise from the use of payment services. For the first time in the history of payment services in our country, the provisions of the new Law introduce an obligation for the payment service provider to regulate the rights and obligations of the consumer with a framework agreement in a standardized form, which shall include a mandatory set of information, as well as the possibilities and terms under which it can be amended or terminated. These provisions achieve greater transparency of service providers and provide better information, legal security and equal treatment of consumers" said Nacevska and added that the new regulatory framework unequivocally specifies not only the contents of the documents, but also the form, deadlines and the manner of delivery.

The payment service providers are required to regularly submit data to the National Bank on the amount of the fees for the most representative services of the payment account, which will be published on the National Bank website in a comparative context. The first data are meant to be published by the end of September this year.

"In this way, citizens will have fast and easily available information on the fees when choosing the payment service provider. The greater transparency and eased comparability of the fess are expected to create conditions for greater competitiveness, and thus more favorable prices of payment services for citizens.

The Vice Governor Nacevska further noted that the consumer protection reflects the properly defined responsibilities of both payment service providers and users in the event of unauthorized payment transactions.

"The provisions of the new Law, in terms of the responsibilities of payment service provider stipulate that in case he executed a payment transaction which was not authorized by the account holder, he is required to return the account balance in the previous state and the date of approval shall not be later than the date when the account was debited for the transaction amount. In case of unauthorized payment transactions because the account holder lost the payment instrument or it has been stolen (for example payment card), the amount to which the citizen can assume losses is legally limited and set to a maximum of Denar 1,200", said Nacevska.