The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) presented its roadmap for the Cashless Economy large-scale government project in November. The NBU plans to increase the volume of non-cash payments in 2020 to 55%
As stated by Valeria Gontareva, Head of the NBU, during the Cashless Economy Conference, “we believe that the introduction of cashless payments is one of the main strategic directions in the development of the Ukrainian banking system. The efforts of the National Bank will be focused on four main areas of work: reducing the demand for cash, the promotion of cashless payments, development of the payments infrastructure, and changing people’s habits. The Cashless Economy project is not only unprecedentedly large, but also one that will bring together all the participants in the market”, said the Head of the NBU. The ambitious goal of the NBU is to reduce the volume of cash in circulation from 14.3% in 2015 to 9.5% of GDP in 2020.
Continuing the Cashless theme, Sergey Shatskiy, Head of the Department of Payment Systems at the National Bank, said that one of the priorities of the Cashless economy project is the development of the “Prostir” national payment system. It is interesting to note that Blockchain technology was mentioned in the context of the development of the national payment system. Experts suggest that the regulator will issue electronic money through Blockchain for alternative card payments. “The task of the NBU is to increase non-cash payments and develop the national payment system, whose share by 2020 should reach 30%”, said Serhiy Shatskiy.
Participants in the financial markets welcomed the efforts by the NBU to develop a cashless economy. “Over the last year the National Bank has done more than in the past 15-20 years”, said Oleksandr Karpov, Director of the EMA. And according to Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, Chairman of Raiffeisen Bank Aval, the NBU strategy for the development of cashless economy to the level of 55% by 2020 is a very big step. Volodymyr Lavrenchuk expressed his great optimism for the development of the Cashless Economy: “Our country is seeing a constant increase the number of online services, developing e-banking, e-taxation, cashless payments for public transport, and the next elections in Ukraine may well be electronic. By 2020 the majority of services in Ukraine will be digital. And perhaps even more than 55% of the economy. My prediction is actually 80%”, he said. According to Dmytro Shimkiv, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, it is important to develop mobile payments (such as Apple Pay) which are today driving the cashless economy and integration processes such as Uber. Also, in his opinion, scaling up the cashless economy will need simple services and their accessability.
Kate Shcheglova,
editor-in-chief at “Future” magazine (Ukraine)
