With 2 months left until Albanians will have the opportunity to make payments with SEPA, the Bank of Albania has determined the fees that will be applied to each transaction carried out through this system.
According to the draft regulation published by the Central Bank, fees for incoming payments should in no case exceed the value of 3 euros per transaction. For example, an immigrant who will send money to his family in Albania via SEPA will not have more than 3 euros of transfer fees. This applies to every incoming payment in Albania.
Meanwhile, fees for outgoing payments cannot exceed the limits of national payments in euros, i.e. payments in euros processed through the AIPS system within Albania. Albanians who will send money abroad with SEPA will not have higher fees than those currently for payments in euros with AIPS within the country.
For example, for transfers in the AIPS EURO system, the minimum commission applied by commercial banks is 4 euros. The same will apply to outgoing payments with SEPA. While for any transfer with a value less than or equal to 150 thousand euros, banks should not apply commissions higher than 0.02% of the transferred value.
If the sender's bank account is different from the beneficiary's, i.e. one is in lek and the other in euro, a currency exchange will be made before the transaction is completed and a different fee will be applied.
Starting from October 7, citizens will be able to make cross-border payments in euros with SEPA.
By making transfers via SEPA, the cost of cross-border payments in euros with member countries of the scheme will be several times lower. According to estimates by the Bank of Albania, the Albanian economy will save at least 20 million euros in the first year, to increase thereafter.
