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Fintech & payments regulation in Moldova (2026)

Fintech and digital payments in Moldova: licensing regime.

Moldova operates a dedicated, EU-aligned licensing regime for non-bank payment institutions and electronic money institutions (EMIs) under Law 114/2012, with the National Bank of Moldova as the single licensing and supervisory authority. PSD2 was transposed via Law 209/2022 (phased in 2022-2024), introducing open banking, strong customer authentication and third-party providers (AISPs/PISPs), and the NBM launched the MIA instant-payments rail in 2024 with SEPA accession in 2025. BNPL has no dedicated standalone framework.

Last verified Official sources first · MethodologyCompare Moldova with other countries

Legal framework

Law on Payment Services and Electronic Money No. 114 of 18 May 2012 (as amended by Law No. 209/2022 transposing EU PSD2), administered and supervised by the National Bank of Moldova (NBM).

Key points: digital payments & fintech in Moldova

  1. Dedicated licensing law & regulator

    Law 114/2012 establishes licensing for payment institutions, e-money institutions and postal operators; the National Bank of Moldova licenses, regulates and oversees these providers and maintains public registers of licensed entities (and of withdrawn/suspended licenses).

    bnm.md bnm.md bnm.md

  2. EU PSD2 transposition

    Law 209/2022 amended Law 114/2012 to transpose EU Directive 2015/2366 (PSD2), phased in across 2022 (prudential supervision), 2023 (process adjustments) and August 2024 (strong customer authentication, open banking and new services); the original 2012 law already implemented EU Directives 2007/64/EC and 2009/110/EC.

    chambers.com bnm.md

  3. Open banking in force

    A national Open Banking standard (based on the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 standard) requires licensed payment service providers to expose dedicated APIs to authorized third parties; account information service providers (AISPs) and payment initiation service providers (PISPs) may operate after registering with the NBM and meeting regulatory conditions.

    moldpres.md bnm.md

  4. Instant-payment rail (MIA)

    The NBM launched the MIA instant payments system on 12 March 2024 (P2P, request-to-pay and QR), extending to business payments (P2B, July 2024), government payments (P2G, July 2025) and B2B transfers (March 2026); adoption reached roughly half of bank-account holders.

    bnm.md bnm.md

  5. SEPA accession

    Moldova officially joined the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) on 6 March 2025, allowing its banks to adopt SEPA credit transfer schemes and integrate with the EU payments architecture.

    europeanpaymentscouncil.eu

  6. BNPL not separately regulated

    No dedicated BNPL/consumer buy-now-pay-later licensing framework was identified; such activity would fall under general payment, lending and consumer-credit rules rather than a standalone regime, a gap relative to the otherwise PSD2-aligned payments framework.

    chambers.com

Sources

  1. bnm.md/en/content/law-payment-services-and-electronic-money-no-114-18052012
  2. bnm.md/en/content/register-electronic-money-institutions-0
  3. bnm.md/en/content/register-payment-institutions-postal-operators-0
  4. bnm.md/en/content/role-nbm-payment-system
  5. chambers.com/legal-trends/the-future-of-digital-finance-and-currency-in-moldova
  6. moldpres.md/eng/economy/new-step-in-development-of-digital-payments-national-open
  7. bnm.md/en/content/mia-instant-payments-system-created-nbm-two-years-after-la
  8. bnm.md/en/content/questions-and-answers-about-instant-payments
  9. europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/moldova-joins-sepa-building-modern-inclusive-pa
  10. bnm.md/en/content/national-bank-moldova-discussed-moldovan-banks-association

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Orientation, not legal advice: verify against the primary sources linked above. Last verified 25 May 2026. Methodology & how to cite · State of Technology Regulation 2026