National Bank of Ukraine Considers Permitting Institutions To Issue Electronic Money

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is considering granting non-banking financial institutions the right to issue “electronic money”, the regulator's press service wrote on its Facebook page. It explained the move as a “clear intention” to conform to EU financial regulations in order to join the European Union.

“Ukraine is working hard to approach their legislation on payment systems to European practice. At present the National Bank of Ukraine is considering the right to non-bank financial institutions to issue electronic money,” according to Google-translated version of the message.

The message further stated that requirements to the charter capital, equity capital and a mechanism to protect funds received in exchange for electronic money must be established for non-bank financial institutions that will issue electronic money, which corresponds to the recommendations of EU Directive 110, Ukraine news agency Interfax reported.

According to the directive, banks and other financial institutions can issue electronic money if they license their operations and if they hold the initial capital of not less than EUR 350,000.