The Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiara, the ASF, was created in 2013 by merging three separate bodies: the securities commission, the insurance supervisory commission and the private pension supervisor. Since then one authority has supervised capital markets, insurance and private pensions in Romania, while banking supervision stayed with the National Bank of Romania. That split is the first thing to get right, because it determines who you are actually dealing with.
An investment firm goes to the ASF. A payment institution or electronic money institution goes to the National Bank of Romania. A group that wants both permissions is running two applications with two authorities, and the sequencing matters.
The investment firm authorisation
Romania authorises investment firms, societati de servicii de investitii financiare, commonly abbreviated SSIF, under the national law transposing MiFID II. Permissions follow the European set and capital scales with them under the EU investment firm regulation and directive. A firm intending to act as counterparty to leveraged contracts for difference needs the dealing on own account permission, and it then carries the whole European conduct framework: client categorisation, appropriateness testing, leverage limits, negative balance protection and the marketing restrictions attached to the product.
The ASF also supervises the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the local market infrastructure, so its institutional centre of gravity is a functioning domestic capital market rather than an export licence business. That is worth stating plainly. Romania has not positioned itself as a jurisdiction that sells authorisations to firms whose clients are elsewhere, and an application whose business plan is entirely non Romanian will be read with that in mind. Client categorisation, which is where a lot of retail conduct obligations start, is set out in client categorisation rules.
How brokers actually reach Romanian clients
Through passporting, almost always. A firm authorised in Cyprus, Ireland, Germany or another EEA state notifies its home regulator, the notification reaches the ASF, and the firm can then provide services in Romania either cross border or through a branch. The ASF maintains public records of firms operating in Romania on that basis, and a Romanian client can check.
What the passport does not do is dissolve Romanian obligations. Disclosures and contractual documents intended for Romanian retail clients need to be usable by them, complaint handling has to reach a route the client can actually use, and national marketing rules apply to how the product is promoted. The product intervention framework on leverage and risk warnings applies uniformly across the EEA, and the numbers behind it are in ESMA leverage caps.
A branch changes the balance. Where a firm establishes a Romanian branch, host state conduct supervision over the branch business becomes more direct, which is a reason some firms prefer pure cross border provision and a reason some clients prefer a branch. Neither is a loophole. Both are notified structures.
Descriptive only. Romanian and European requirements change, and any firm planning to serve Romanian retail clients should confirm the current position with Romanian regulatory counsel rather than relying on a general article.
The leu, and why payments get awkward
Romania is an EU member state that uses the leu. Client deposits typically arrive in leu, trading accounts are usually denominated in dollars or euro, and something has to convert. There are three honest ways to handle it: convert at a published rate with a disclosed markup, offer leu denominated accounts, or accept euro deposits and let the client's own bank convert. There is a fourth way, which is to bury the conversion in an unpublished internal rate, and it is a conduct problem because it is an undisclosed charge.
Local card acceptance in leu also affects approval rates. Cross border transactions in a currency the issuer does not expect, from an acquirer in another country, decline more often than domestic ones, and trading merchants sit in a high risk category before any of that is considered. The drivers are covered in payment approval rates. Firms that solve this properly either work with an acquirer that supports local processing or set expectations with clients about which rails work.
Who accepts a Romanian licence
Correspondent banks read Romania as an EU member state with a supervisor focused on a domestic market, which is a reasonable profile. As everywhere, the account decision is driven by the flow rather than the flag: client country risk, transaction patterns, sanctions screening outcomes and the proportion of volume in high risk merchant categories. A firm with predominantly EEA clients and clean screening is in a normal position. A firm routing large non resident volumes through a small EU entity is not, whatever its licence says.
Acquirers apply the trading merchant category and its reserves and chargeback monitoring irrespective of jurisdiction. Liquidity providers want audited accounts, segregation evidence and a credit case, all of which an EEA prudential regime supplies. Advertising platforms and app stores run financial services verification and want a licence or passport covering the country being targeted, which is exactly why unlicensed firms cannot buy compliant distribution into the EU at all.
The position
For a firm whose business is genuinely Romanian, an ASF authorisation with local staff is coherent and the domestic market focus of the regulator is an advantage. For a firm that simply wants an EEA passport and has no Romanian operation, Romania is an unusual choice and the application will read as one. Most operators serving Romanian clients should hold their licence where their business already is, file the notification correctly, translate properly and handle complaints locally.
SINGUARD builds the software these firms run on, the trading platform, the CRM and the client portal, and never holds the licence itself. The Broker CRM is built so that client categorisation, document collection and disclosure delivery can be evidenced per client and per country, because that evidence is what a host supervisor asks for. Leveraged trading carries a high risk of loss for retail clients, and the disclosure obligations exist precisely because of it.
"If your clients are Romanian, the licence question is usually not where to apply. It is whether your passport notification and your Romanian language disclosures are actually in place, because that is what gets checked."
— Alex Onta, Executive Director, SINGUARD
Key Takeaways
- The ASF supervises capital markets, insurance and private pensions in Romania, while banking and payment institutions sit with the National Bank of Romania.
- Romanian investment firms are authorised as SSIF under the national transposition of MiFID II, with permissions and scaled capital, and CFD counterparty activity needs dealing on own account.
- Nearly all brokers serving Romanian retail clients operate cross border under a passport, which requires a proper notification plus local language disclosure and complaint handling.
- The leu creates a conversion cost that must be disclosed, and cross border card acceptance in leu decreases approval rates before the high risk merchant category is even applied.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the ASF regulate in Romania?
The Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiara supervises the capital markets, insurance and private pension sectors, including investment firms and market infrastructure. Banking supervision and payment institution authorisation sit with the National Bank of Romania.
Can a Cyprus or German broker legally take Romanian clients?
Yes, through the MiFID II passport, either cross border or by establishing a branch, once the home regulator has notified the ASF. Romanian conduct expectations around disclosure, language and complaint handling continue to apply to how those clients are served.
Does the Romanian leu create problems for deposits?
It creates a conversion step. Deposits in leu against accounts denominated in euro or dollars mean someone bears a conversion cost, and that cost has to be disclosed rather than absorbed into an unpublished internal rate. Cross border card payments in leu also tend to be approved less often than domestic ones.
About the Author
Alex Onta is an Executive Director at SINGUARD. He built eTrader, the terminal, the mobile apps, eTrader Broker, Copytrading, Business and Community, along with the worldwide clustered-server infrastructure it all runs on, with his brother Roman Onta helping on the design, and he leads that division today. Together with Roman he builds the Prop Firm CRM, the Broker CRM, Scalegram and CopySignals, and the two of them carry worldwide compliance, payment processing and international business structuring side by side. He lives and works in Dubai for most of the year. Meet the executive duo leading Singuard's five divisions.