On 5 August 2013, the roundtable discussion on “20 years of circulation of electronic money in Ukraine: experience, results, prospects”, was held at the National Bank of Ukraine. The representatives from the National Bank of Ukraine, the Central Clearing House, the Banking University of the National Bank of Ukraine, the State Financial Inspection of Ukraine and leading bankers participated in the roundtable discussion.

The participants in the roundtable discussion discussed the current state of the System of Electronic Payments (hereinafter – the SEP), reflected on the emergence and development of the Ukrainian system of interbank settlements, outlined its future development prospects.

 Mr. Anatolii Savchenko, former Director of Informatization Department of the National Bank of Ukraine, recounted the prerequisites for creating the system: “In 1993, there was an urgent need to increase the velocity of circulation of money as without an efficient payment system it took weeks to make money transfers, the country experienced an insatiable “hunger” for money, and Ukraine had to shift from cash transactions to barter transactions. Forged letters of advice became rampant and posed a significant threat to business”. He emphasized that the SEP had been designed to ensure the circulation of electronic money in the economy and the system effectively fulfils this function today.

The SEP participants placed great emphasis on the security of electronic payments and a high level of protection of payment and other information transmitted through the system.

The experts from the International Monetary Fund, Bank for International Settlements, World Bank, Financial Services Volunteer Corps  asses the SEP as being Ukraine’s systemically important payment system.

In his closing speech, Mr. Valerii Prokhorenko, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, noted that the National Bank of Ukraine makes continuous efforts to develop the SEP, improve the legal environment in which the SEP operates, and seeks new ways of enhancing the infrastructure to manage the circulation of e-money in Ukraine. “We make efforts to launch new services linked to the SEP operation. The expediency of the SEP operation on a round-the-clock basis is under consideration,” he noted.

Mr. Valerii Prokhorenko sincerely thanked all the NBU employees who had developed and put the SEP into operation in the mid 90s, and those experts who run the system today and congratulated them on the occasion of 20th anniversary of putting the SEP into operation.

For reference.

The SEP is the national system of interbank settlements in Ukraine, which is designed to execute a transfer of funds through the correspondent accounts and other accounts opened by the system participants with the National Bank of Ukraine. It is equipped with electronic means for acceptance, processing, transmitting and protection of information. The National Bank of Ukraine acts as a payment institution and a settlement bank for the SEP.

All Ukrainian banks and their branches (176 banks and 212 branches), the State Treasury Service of Ukraine and its 28 bodies, regional branches and educational institutions of the National Bank of Ukraine, "Clearing Center on Servicing of Agreements on Financial Markets" PJSC are among the SEP participants. The SEP settles net settlement positions within Ukraine between banks on behalf of banks’ customers as well as under commitments of banks and other system participants.

On 5 August 2013, the banking community marks the 20th anniversary of putting the SEP into operation. The SEP provides a clear indication that Ukraine takes the lead in introducing new banking technologies.