Development of the electronic payment system of the National bank of Ukraine

Abstract

The payment system of the state is an inseparable part of the modern economy, which ensures fast and safe movement of money. The development of information technologies, the strengthening of the requirements of users of payment services, the need to ensure the transparency of interbank payments and their availability creates the prerequisites for the transformation of payment systems in the field of interbank settlements. Rapid changes in the environment, exacerbated by the impact of military operations on the territory of Ukraine, require constant monitoring of the peculiarities of the implementation of national payment systems and the search for ways to improve them. The purpose of the article is to study the genesis of the electronic payments system of the NBU, determine its features at the current stage and directions for further development. According to the results of activity monitoring in 2023, the Electronic Payment System (EPS) of the National Bank of Ukraine was recognized as the only systemically important payment system. The results of the analysis of the dynamics of payments made through the EPS of the NBU conducted in the article showed an upward trend in the number and volume of payments during 2022 - nine months of 2024. This is the evidence of the sustainability of the system and its development. The regulatory framework plays a special role in the process of regulating the activity of payment systems in Ukraine. Therefore, the work investigated and summarized the legislative acts regulating the activity of banks in the payment market of Ukraine. Thus, among a number of regulatory acts, which included Laws, Resolutions of the NBU and Rules of the NBU, the key importance is assigned to the Law of Ukraine «On Payment Services» dated 06/30/2021 No. 1591-IX. According to the results of the NBU EPS development study, the paper concluded that over 20 years of operation in the banking sector of Ukraine, this system has shown its effectiveness and volatility, that is, the ability to adapt and improve under the influence of external and internal factors. Thus, in the article, the entire period of existence of the NBU electronic payment system in Ukraine was divided into 5 main stages, each of which was accompanied by the implementation of an updated version of the system (EPS, EPS-2, EPS-3, EPS-4 and EPS-4.1, respectively). Each new version of the EPS changed both functionally and in terms of construction architecture and work regulations. The most significant changes were made to: document circulation system; work schedule and banking operations’ time; message processing rules; structure of information exchange; technical implementation of the participant's interaction with the EPS Processing Center (EPSPC). The very essence of the concept of «banking day» was also changed. Among the further directions of the EPS work, the article defines the introduction of a multi-currency regime, ensuring the organization of EPS interaction with international payment systems and expanding the number of participants in interbank settlements due to the use of new types of financial and non-financial intermediary institutions.