Governing Financial Innovation Through Institutional Learning: Lessons from Romania’s Fintech Innovation Hub

The rapid digital transformation of the financial sector has prompted supervisory authorities worldwide to adopt new monitoring instruments for fintech innovation monitoring. Among these, Innovation Hubs have emerged as key institutional tools for enhancing regulatory accessibility, interpretive clarity and supervisory adaptation. This article explores the case of the Romanian Fintech Innovation Hub, launched by the National Bank of Romania as a non-binding consultation platform for FinTech and payment service providers navigating complex legal environments. Drawing on original research field, internal documentation and a conceptual framework that positions fintech innovation hubs as simultaneously outward-facing and inward-transformative, the paper assesses the Hub’s performance across several dimensions: stakeholder engagement, regulatory learning, policy calibration and institutional reflexivity. Findings reveal that while the Innovation Hub contributed significantly to internal capacity building and trust-based dialogue, its potential to inform rulemaking remained constrained by structural and procedural limitations. The study identifies best practices for optimizing Innovation Hubs in bank-dominated markets, including modular engagement pathways, AML/KYC guidance harmonization, pre-engagement diagnostics on ICT risk, and improved feedback loops into supervisory planning. The Romanian case illustrates both the functional value and the institutional boundaries of advisory-only innovation infrastructures in emerging fintech ecosystems. As such, it provides transferable lessons for jurisdictions aiming to reconcile innovation facilitation with prudential integrity and legal certainty.