ROMANIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Sergiu-Traian Vasilescu, Luca Dejan, Bogdan Rotaru and Ana-Maria Bută, VD Law Group
In recent years, the financial technology sector in Romania has undergone significant chang - es, positioning itself as a dynamic hub in the Eastern European market. These developments have been fostered by accelerating technologi - cal progress, the implementation of comprehen - sive new regulations and strategic partnerships between banks, technology providers and regu - lators. Private service providers in Romania have also established over 15 new activities based on new emerging technologies, such as: exchange services between cryptocurrencies and fiat cur - rency; cryptocurrencies that have 1:1 parity with fiduciary coins (stablecoins); NFT-generation services; services for monitoring transactions/ payments with cryptocurrencies (tracking tools); online games (crypto games); e-commerce ser - vices (marketplace); transaction validation activi - ties (mining farms); initial exchange offerings (ICOs); cryptocurrency storage services (crypto wallets); exchange services between cryptocur - rencies (crypto exchanges); cryptocurrency pay - ment/receipt services (transaction/payment pro - cessors); liquidity assurance services (farming pools/landing platforms); secure telecommuni - cations services; governance system decentrali - sation services; accepting payments in crypto - currencies (retail and automobile industries); organising databases to create transparency and immutability (IT industry); cryptocurrency fundraising and democratisation of invest - ments (small amounts from a large number of investors – crowdfunding industry and private investments); and using surplus energy to vali - date transactions in the blockchain (mining – the green energy industry). The framework established by the Romanian legislature for the integration of the national regulatory structure with the Cryptocurrency
Markets Regulation (MiCA), the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and the Digital Opera - tional Resilience Act (DORA), in order to comply with these new European directives, has not yet been explicitly outlined. These regulations impose stringent compliance obligations on financial technology firms, particularly in terms of consumer protection, anti-money laundering measures, cybersecurity standards and opera - tional resilience strategies. Furthermore, as a consequence of the adoption of legislative sandboxes and open banking initia - tives, the fintech sector in Romania has seen a considerable increase in collaboration between fintech start-ups and traditional financial institu - tions. However, the process of amending nation - al legislation continues and, given both the com - plexity of the new regulations and the challenges they pose to the fintech sector, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) and the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) are expected to play a crucial role in achieving a balance between fostering innovation and providing financial stability. Technological Trends Shaping Fintech Innovation Expansion of crowdfunding platforms and alternative financial models In recent years, Romania has been actively operating in the alternative financing mecha - nisms and crowdfunding market, driven by the growing entrepreneurial demand for affordable and flexible capital for innovative projects. As a consequence, the EU legal framework and national legislation contribute on building a solid foundation for the development of these alter - native financial models. The majority of service providers in this field have already obtained all the necessary licences in accordance with the European Regulation on crowdfunding service providers and the relevant national regulations,
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