The NBU has received another prestigious international trophy from Central Banking Awards, in the Payments and Market Infrastructure Development category.
The Central Banking panel of judges has acknowledged the NBU's efforts to develop NBU BankID, a system that facilitates the remote identification of clients.
The NBU Bank ID system gives the Ukrainian people stable and continuous access to important public and financial services.
International experts have highlighted that the system's uninterrupted operation during the war has been especially valuable, as it has enabled people to continue to receive public and financial services remotely.
Specifically, the Ukrainians who relocated as they fled the war have enjoyed unhindered access to their electronic documents in Diia, a publicly administered mobile app. In addition, individuals have been able to remotely open bank accounts by authenticating themselves via the system. People who cannot take a trip to a bank branch due to being displaced have been able to go online, as have those whose banks have no way of providing on-site services in wartime.
"The NBU team is honored to have received the international recognition of its efforts to develop financial innovations. We have been working on the NBU BankID System for seven years now. Over this time, we have significantly upgraded it and expanded the range of its participants. More than 99% of individuals who are Ukrainian banks' clients have access to the system. Even as russia continues to perpetrate energy terror, Ukrainians can count on receiving remote services via nearly one hundred websites. We are grateful for this award. It motivates and inspires us to make new achievements and continue to evolve," said NBU Deputy Governor Oleksii Shaban.
For the duration of martial law, to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the NBU BankID System and to support its participants, the NBU has waived the fees for the services it provides through the system, he said. This means that subscribers are not charged for connection, support, or the processing of transactions. In addition, the central bank temporarily allows transfers of data of users who have been unable to update their information with their banks due to the war.
The NBU BankID System currently has 130 participants. Those include 39 identifying banks and 91 subscribers that provide services. About one hundred thousand successful electronic authentications take place in the system on a daily basis (32.8 million in 2022, up 9% from 2021).
The NBU continues to upgrade the system to meet participants' needs and wartime challenges even as the war grinds on. As part of the NBU's European integration efforts and work to amend legislation on trust services and electronic transactions, the central bank is looking into the possibility of having its BankID System recognized as an electronic identification scheme. Going forward, such a status will, among other things, enable Ukrainians to use the system to receive remote services within the EU.
As previously reported, this trophy comes as the NBU's second award this year from Central Banking Awards. On 13 March, the NBU was also designated Central Bank of the Year for its effective performance throughout 2022 in conditions of the full-scale war.
Central Banking is a UK-based media outlet that was founded in 1990. Among other things, Central Banking issues the Central Banking Journal, a magazine for central bankers that caters to subscribers in more than 100 countries, and hosts the annual Central Banking Awards.
The event features 26 categories: 13 for central banks and 13 for financial market participants.
The NBU has previously received two awards from Central Banking:
the 2019 Transparency Award for making significant progress in building a dialogue with stakeholders
the 2021 Currency Manager Award for the large-scale optimization of the hryvnia banknote and coin series and the modernization of the Ukrainian currency in 2014–2020.