Ukraine adopts law for Open Banking, e-money, and non-bank cards

The bill provides the implementation of Open Banking in Ukraine, which will stimulate the development of financial technologies in the country, since fintech companies will be able to establish mutually beneficial cooperation with banks and get more business opportunities. The new legislation expands the circle of participants in the payment market and allows non-banks and fintech companies to develop.

In addition to banks, PSPs will enable payments towards institutions, postal operators, electronic money institutions, and others. In addition, they will have the right to work without participating in the payment system and will be able to issue payment cards themselves. Nine payment services will appear, of which seven are financial and two non-financial (a service for initiating a payment and a service for providing information from accounts). Therefore, any small market participant can simply choose one service and make this service impeccable.

Non-banks will also be able to open payment accounts for the service of crediting funds, making payment transactions, and issuing cash.To reduce the risks, it will not be possible to accumulate funds in payment accounts, accrue interest on the balance, and they will not be guaranteed by the FGVFL.

In February 2021, the Rada adopted this bill as a basis. However, later it was decided to add a norm to it, which sets the maximum size of the interchange rate. The NBU and other leading banks strongly opposed the non-market regulation of the interchange rate and the acquiring fee. As a result, the parliament agreed on a gradual decrease in interbank fees.