Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriia Gontareva has said that the National Bank of Ukraine is actively involved in efforts to upgrade the National System of Mass Electronic Payments (hereinafter – the NSMEP), which would allow its wider use in Ukraine.
"We will attempt to make our payment system up-to-date, popular and competitive. We will seek to make it attractive, with a wide range of products, and cheap, as compared with world analogues. We are confident that the NSMEP will operate in Ukraine in parallel with other payment systems," said Valeriia Gontareva.
She added that over 90% of transactions using payment cards issued by domestic banks are carried out domestically. Therefore, it is logical and expedient to process all domestic payment transactions within Ukraine.
Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakiv Smolii unveiled plans to carry out rebranding of the system and change its name. “The regulator has carried out an overhaul of the payment system and today the upgraded NSMEP meets the international standards EMV. The revamped payment is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments. We are working on contactless payment technology and exploring the possibility of using mobile applications to make payments," he said.
In addition, Yakiv Smolii pointed out that the development of the national payment system would to contribute to the growth of the national income. According to preliminary estimates, total annual expenditures of domestic banks on services rendered by the international payment systems have reached USD 100 million and tend upward.
At the same time, the NSMPEP pricing policy is absolutely transparent, market-based, and competitive, as compared with that of the international payment systems. The banks that participate in the NSMEP enjoy favorable terms and they are not required to overhaul well-established business processes. "Banks do not have to incur expenses on adjusting terminal equipment so that it is able to accept our cards. We offer reasonable fees, lower costs on servicing transactions, a reduction in the funds that are temporarily blocked as guaranteed deposit in the international payment system," said Yakiv Smolii.
Yakiv Smolii reminded that one of the policy priorities of the central bank is to the volume of cashless payments, would contribute to reduce the size of the shadow economy and bring down the cash handling costs.