National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia reports lower card acceptance fees and sets timelines for SEPA entry and open banking

The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia published conference remarks outlining how the country’s new legal framework for payment systems is supporting greater competition in the payments industry and lowering the costs of accepting digital payments in retail. In a presentation at a Bloomberg Adria conference, Igor Velichkovski, Director of the Financial Market Operations and Payment Systems Department, said the average merchant fee for card acceptance was 1.1% in 2024, down 0.1 percentage points from 2018, with some sectors recording larger decreases of up to 0.7 percentage points. Over the same period, the number of merchants accepting digital payments at points of sale increased by 36% to 16.4 thousand. The framework has also enabled the entry of new providers, including payment institutions and electronic money institutions, and fintech solutions are expected to bring wider use of digital wallets, QR-code initiation and payment acceptance without traditional POS terminals. The remarks also pointed to upcoming milestones, including implementation of open banking no later than March 2026 and the inclusion of banks in SEPA payment schemes from 6 October 2025, which is expected to support faster, safer and cheaper cross-border euro payments for households and businesses.