National Bank may restrict money transfers: "servant of people" Hetmantsev announced details
This was reported in a telegram by the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev (Servant of the People), Censor.NET reports.
"Yesterday, the Committee considered the NBU's report on "miscoding" and shadow financial transactions.
The NBU's inspection of banks and non-bank financial institutions revealed numerous violations that create conditions for multibillion-dollar transactions (transfers) using electronic payment instruments, including self-service terminals.
The inspections resulted in fines of about UAH 486.35 million, as well as the revocation of the licenses of some banks and the cancellation of the licenses of some NFIs.
As a result, we have seen a reduction in financial transactions in violation of Ukrainian law, including the use of "cross-border" transactions. For example, non-cash transactions in the legal gambling segment increased from UAH 4 billion (in 2022) to UAH 83 billion (in 2023), and the total turnover increased to UAH 207 billion (in 2023) compared to UAH 14 billion (in 2022).
Despite the successes, the cashless payments segment still has some schemes for conducting prohibited business activities, including:
- illegal organization and conduct of gambling
- legalization of the proceeds of crime
- fraudulent schemes using phishing
- use of virtual assets to conduct "gray"/"shadow" financial transactions
To remedy the situation, the NBU proposes:
- Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Payment Services" to tighten the requirements for the amount of equity capital of payment service providers and increase the amount of fines for violations of the legislation regulating activities in the payment market
- to establish at the legislative level for the period of martial law restrictions on financial transactions using the details of electronic payment instruments, limits on transaction amounts, their number, etc. As well as limits on the amount of cash transfers made through self-service terminals
Following the review of the issue, I instructed the relevant subcommittee to prepare the necessary amendments to the legislation together with the NBU," Hetmantsev said.
