Today the National Bank of Ukraine has hosted the International Workshop on “Ukraine: Cashless Economy Project”, which was organized as part of the implementation of the Comprehensive Program for the Development of Ukraine’s Financial Sector till 2020 (hereinafter – the Comprehensive Program).
The workshop was attended by representatives from international intitutions, including the IMF and the UNCDF, central banks of European countries, public institutions and Ukraine’s banking sector.
In his opening speech, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakiv Smolii underlined that the National Bank is pursuing a consistent policy aimed at increasing the share of non-cash payments through a reduction in cash circulation and the introduction of non-cash payments. “The introduction of non-cash payments is a priority for the National Bank of Ukraine and one of the strategic areas for the development of Ukraine’s banking sector,” he stressed.
Director of the NBU Payment Systems Department Nataliia Lapko said that under the Comprehensive Program one of the areas of focus of the financial sector reform agenda is to ensure further development of non-cash payments and retail cashless e-payments through efforts to build the payment infrastructure and gradually reduce the share of cash payments versus cashless ones.
She pointed out that the extenstion of the non-cash payments infrastructure would bring Ukraine closer to European commercial and banking service standards.
With the aim of implementing financial sector reform measures in a comprehensive manner and addressing the issue of developing non-cash payments in Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine has set up the Interdepartmental Working Group on the development of non-cash payments comprising representatives from the Minstry of Finance of Ukraine, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
In addition, Nataliia Lapko briefed the international workshop participants on the situation in Ukraine’s cashless payment industry and outlined its development prospects in reply to the questions raised by the particiapants.
Director of the NBU Retail Payments Department Serhii Shatskyi pointed out that not only banks, but also the state and its citizens have shown interest in the widespread use of cashless payments. “Above all, cashless payments are convenient, fast and secure for Ukrainians. The state also benefits from greater use of cashless payments that propel its technological and innovative development and channel additional financial resources into the real economy,” he said.
In the course of the workshop, representatives from foreign central banks shared their experience in introducing innovations in the area of payment systems and and pointed out that their countries attach priority to the development cashless payments and encourgae the use of innovative payment instruments.
Mr. Michael van Doeveren, a Senior Policy Advisor of the National Bank of the Netherlands (De Nederlandsche Bank) briefed the participants about cashless and innovative payments in the Netherlands and Europe. “The National Bank of the Netherlands supports all the initiatives aimed at promoting the use of efficient payment instruments. However, top priority is attached to ensuring their reliability, security and accessibility. Ukraine is part of Europe and should follow the European trends. There should be less cash in circulation, but there shouldn’t be the society without money,” he said.
Mr. Adam Tochmański, a representative from the National Bank of Poland, presented the Programme for Non-Cash Payments Development in Poland For the Years 2014-2020 to the workshop participants. According to him, Poland is set to increase the volume and value of cashless transactions two-fold by 2020. He wished that Ukraine would keep moving forward in this direction and achieve even better results.
Mr. Bjorn Segendorf, Advisor, Division for Financial Infrastructure,. Sveriges Riksbank, shared information with the participants about the development of non-cash payments in Sweden. “The transparent manner in which the value of cash is set, provision of wide access of the public to banking services and mobile and internet communication services as well as the prevention of money laundering facilitate a shift to non-cash payments. "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet," he said, adding that Ukraine is moving in the right direction.
Mr Pavlo Zyl, a representative from the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, dwelled on the topical issues pertaining to the development of the system of cashless payments and extensive deployment of digital banking technologies in Belarus.
Ms Ayse Dagistan, a representative from the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, provided insight into Turkey's “payment landscape”.
Ms Liubov Syrovatska, Chairwoman of the EBA Electronic Payments Committee, outlined the major steps to be taken on the path to the cashless economy.
Wrapping up the workshop, Yakiv Smolii pointed out that the experience of foreign experts who had presented their programs at today’s workshop would be useful for Ukraine. The experience gained through the workshop will allow Ukraine to move ahead with efforts to achieve greater transparency and controllability of cash flows, reduce the shadow economy, increase budget revenues by tackling tax evasion through improvements in tax administration, and boost GDP growth.