How to accept MIA instant payments
MIA is the Republic of Moldova's instant payment scheme. Money moves straight from the buyer's account to yours, in seconds, 24/7 — no cards, no EMV.
What MIA is
MIA is Moldova's national instant payment scheme. The payment travels account to account between banks: the buyer confirms it in their own bank's app, and the amount lands in your account in real time, any day, any hour.
It is not a card and does not replace one. There is no magnetic stripe, no EMV chip and no card network between the two of you — which is why there are no card-scheme fees and no interchange.
What you need in order to accept
- A business account at a participating bank. The bank is what opens acceptance for you: it knows your company, and it is the party that verifies the details.
- A way to present the payment to the buyer: a QR code, an NFC tap, a link, or an online checkout.
- The acceptance software — that part is miaPOS.
You need no card terminal and no new cash register. If you already run a POS terminal, miaPOS runs on it; we do not sell hardware ourselves — miaPOS runs on terminals from several manufacturers.
How the payment looks at the counter
The same scheme is accepted in several ways, and you pick what fits the point of sale:
- POS terminal — the code appears on the customer-facing screen.
- SoftPOS — your phone or tablet becomes the terminal, with no separate device.
- QR or NFC — at the counter, on the table, on the shelf, or on the invoice.
- Payment link — sent over any channel; the customer pays from their phone.
- Online checkout — in the web shop, over the API or through the platform plugin.
- Chat — the payment starts inside the conversation, without moving the customer out of it.
Payment requests pushed to the customer exist where the scheme allows them — availability is set by the scheme, not by us.
How this differs from accepting cards
- Settlement is real time, 24/7 — weekends and public holidays included.
- The payment is account to account: no card-scheme fees, no interchange.
- You need neither EMV certification nor a card terminal to start.
- Commercial terms are set together with the partner bank.
What your bank asks for
The application is made online, from details you already have to hand:
- your bank — picked from the list;
- the company IDNO — 13 digits from the Moldovan trade register;
- the administrator's IDNP — 13 digits, for the person authorised to represent the company;
- a Moldovan phone number for contact.
The bank matches the IDNO–IDNP pair against its own client records: that is how it confirms the applicant really belongs to that company. If the pair does not match, the company is not a client of that bank yet — the next step is opening a business account, not another application.
If you are not sure which configuration fits, the Configurator emails you a specification of the recommended products — usually in about five minutes.
Next steps
Apply as a merchant and your bank takes activation from there. To see how acceptance looks channel by channel first, start from the merchant pages.