Banks may ease limits on P2P transfers after creating drop register – IABU
Ukrainian banks may ease limits on P2P transfers, which are provided for in the Memorandum on Transparency of the Payment Services Market, in the event of the introduction of a drop register and automated verification of clients' income, Deputy Executive Director of the Independent Association of Banks of Ukraine (IABU) Dmytro Hlinsky said.
"Currently, this subject [easing control and restrictions on P2P transfers] has not been discussed. But if effective tools are introduced in the future to counteract the phenomenon of drops, in particular, an appropriate register and mechanisms for automated verification by banks of their clients' incomes, the need for unified limits may disappear by itself," Hlinsky told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, banks apply a risk-oriented approach, and their clients with confirmed incomes can freely conduct operations, while the restrictions apply only to transactions that have signs of increased risk.
Hlinsky said the Memorandum on Ensuring Transparency in the Functioning of the Payment Services Market, concluded in December, which provides for the voluntary introduction of limits by banks for such operations, allowed the National Bank not to extend the relevant regulatory restrictions.
According to the NABU representative, the absence of nine small banks among the signatories of the Memorandum, whose share in the market of services to individuals and sole proprietors is close to zero, does not prevent the establishment of the approaches and practices provided for in this document on the market.
As reported, on April 1, 2025, the National Bank of Ukraine decided not to extend the temporary regulatory restrictions that had been in effect since October 1, 2024, regarding outgoing transfers between accounts of individuals within one bank to accounts in other banks. The limit was UAH 150,000 per month and applied to all types of transfers, P2P and C2C.
The above-mentioned Memorandum introduced new voluntary limits from February 1, 2025: UAH 50,000 per month for high-risk clients without confirmed income, UAH 150,000 per month for UAH, for clients with medium and low risk, and from June 1 this limit will be reduced to UAH 100,000.
As reported to Interfax-Ukraine, as of May 14, 2025, the Memorandum was signed by 51 out of 60 banks operating on the Ukrainian market and two financial companies – NovaPay and RozetkaPay, which have licenses from the NBU. This indicator has not changed since the beginning of April.
The National Bank plans to prepare a draft law on the introduction of a drop register by the end of May, and it is planned to implement it in 2026.