Albania's Payment Services Law 55/2020 defines the framework for payment providers and the services they supply. Adopted on 30 April 2020 and effective from 2 January 2021, it places payment activity within the regulatory and supervisory framework published by the Bank of Albania.
TL;DR:
- Licensing and supervision cover defined bank, payment-institution and e-money services.
- Sets information duties and rights for payment authorisation, execution and disputes.
- Effective from 2 January 2021; specified technical services and limited networks are excluded.
Summary
A domestic payment-services framework
Law 55/2020 was adopted on 30 April 2020 and entered into force on 2 January 2021. It partly approximates Albania’s legislation to the European Union’s second Payment Services Directive. The law combines three subjects: establishing and supervising payment institutions, transparency and information requirements, and the rights and obligations of users and providers. It therefore governs both entry into payment services and the relationship through which an individual service is delivered.
Who and what falls within the law
The scope includes the payment services listed in the law and providers such as banks, foreign-bank branches, electronic-money institutions and licensed payment institutions. The law also recognises circumstances in which public bodies provide payment services outside their public-authority role. Its definitions distinguish accounts, instruments, money remittance and initiation of payment orders. These distinctions make the provider’s actual service important; a product’s use of an application or card does not alone establish the legal category.
Provider safeguards and customer rights
The framework covers the organisation and licensing of payment institutions, including capital and safeguarding arrangements, alongside information supplied before and during the payment relationship. Rules on consent, execution and responsibilities connect the institution’s permission to the handling of individual transactions. The law’s treatment of payment initiation and account information also means that accessing an account and issuing the account are different roles. Supporting Bank of Albania bylaws supply further detail for regulated firms.
Exclusions have conditions
The text contains defined exclusions, including direct cash payments, certain commercial-agent arrangements, technical support without possession of transferred funds and specified limited-use instruments. Those exclusions are conditional and should not be extended to every platform or outsourced processor. A technical-services exclusion expressly differs from the treatment of payment-initiation and account-information services. Understanding the funds flow, contractual role and scope of the instrument is therefore central to reading the law’s boundary correctly.
Keywords
- Albania payments
- Law 55/2020
- PSD2
- provider licensing
- payment execution
- user rights
- transaction disputes
- technical services
- limited networks
- e-money institutions