The System of Electronic Payments (SEP) of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) started operating in 23/7 mode on 3 August 2020.
The transition to the extended operating mode was successful. From now own, the system is accessible for interbank payments 23 hours seven days a week. Participants of SEP may conduct interbank fund transfers from 1:00 a.m. to 0:00 a.m. The system provides for a maintenance break for one hour before a new banking day begins (from 0:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.) As a reminder, previously SEP accepted interbank payments from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on business days and did not operate on holidays and days-off.
Interbank funds transfers 23/7 in SEP will be optional for banks. Banks will have the option to decide when to start or finish operations in SEP based on their needs and needs of their customers.
Alfa Bank JSC, First Investment Bank JSC, and IdeaBank JSC were the first to make payments in the system at night on 3 August. At dawn two another banks joined, CB PrivatBank JSC and Oschadbank JSC. Generally during the first day of the new operating mode all 75 banks of Ukraine and State Treasury Service of Ukraine performed payments in SEP, including four banks (Alfa Bank JSC, OTP BANK JSC, CB PrivatBank JSC, UKRGASBANK JSB) transferring initial payments in SEP till the end of day.
In total, during the banking day of 3 August 2020 the system processed 1.6 million payments in the amount over UAH 119 billion, in particular:
- for the period from 1:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. – 286,040payments in amount of UAH 6.8 billion;
- for the period from 8:30a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (business hours set in the previous SEP operating procedure) - over 1.303 million payments in the amount of UAH 112 billion;
- for the period from 7:00 p.m. to 0:00 a.m. – 13,870 payments in the amount of UAH 69 million.
“Now bank customers will have almost 24-hour access to financial services and may deliver time-sensitive payments at their own convenience. This will promote financial inclusion, introduction of innovative instruments for noncash transfers and increase of the share of cashless transfer”, noted Volodymyr Nagorniuk, Director of NBU Information Technologies Department.
SEP operation in 23/7 mode will be the first stage of the system switching to a round-the-clock operation. Now the NBU will work on implementing SEP “seamless” operation mode 24/7. This means that transfer from the current to the next banking day will take place instantly, without suspending payment acceptance in SEP during transition to a new day. This SEP operation mode is to be a part of the framework for creating of the next-generation SEP (SEP-4) along with transition of the system to ISO 20022.