The memorandum titled "On Ensuring Transparency in the Operation of the Banking Payment Services Market" does not pose a threat to competition within the banking sector, as reported by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) to the Interfax-Ukraine agency in response to a journalistic inquiry.
"Currently, based on the content of the Memorandum, there are no indications that its provisions could lead to the elimination, restriction, or distortion of competition in the payment services market. At the same time, we note that the Committee will continue to closely monitor the payment services market and, should it receive complaints or statements regarding the actions of the Memorandum participants, the Committee will take measures within the powers granted by legislation on economic competition protection," said Acting Head of the AMCU Olga Muzychenko.
The AMCU's inquiry was submitted at a time when the aforementioned memorandum was signed by four out of 61 banks operating in the system: PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Universal Bank (mono), and Raiffeisen Bank, which accounted for 64.5% of all household funds in banks and 87.5% of active payment cards as of October 1, and by two associations – the National Association of Banks of Ukraine (NABU) and the Association of Ukrainian Banks (AUB).
As reported, the memorandum on tightening financial monitoring has already been signed by 27 out of 61 banks and two financial companies.
The document provides for the introduction of standardized market practices and approaches to proper customer verification and monitoring of their financial transactions, specifically introducing a monthly limit on operations for high-risk clients without verified incomes, set at 50,000 UAH starting February 1, 2025.
For clients with medium and low-risk levels, the limit is set at 150,000 UAH per month starting February 1 and will decrease to 100,000 UAH from June 1.
This applies not only to card-to-card transfers – P2P operations, which the National Bank of Ukraine has already limited to 150,000 UAH per month in one bank, but also to all operations from current accounts in favor of individuals, including to iBAN.