Electronic payment systems in Ukraine

2024: TOP-3 Payment Systems

The number of transfers through payment systems in Ukraine in 2024 increased by 28.5% to 1.1 billion operations, the amount increased by 83.7% to UAH 1.34 trillion. Such data in May 2025 leads the NBU.

Most transactions were carried out by the NovaPay system - the volume grew in dollar terms to $7.12 billion from $6.37 billion, the number of transactions - 411 million. The volume of transactions through PrivatMoney increased to $19.24 billion from $3.65 billion, the number of transactions - 403 million. The volumes of the Financial World payment system increased from $3.0 billion to $3.98 billion, the number of transactions - 165 million.^[1]

2017: Payment market of Ukraine: the number of transactions is growing, the number of cards is decreasing 

The Ukrainian Processing Center (UPC) published in January 2018 the main indicators of the payment card market in Ukraine at the end of 2017. During the reporting period, the total number of card transactions increased by 24% over the year, while the number of ATMs and payment cards decreased^[2].

Payment by card

The popularity of payments with payment cards among Ukrainians continues to grow actively. In 2017, the number of purchases paid for by cards increased by 42%. At the same time, the number of financial transactions per active card reached 5.6 per month.

Comparing with 2016, the share of payments by the payment card from the total number of financial transactions also increased by 7% and amounted to 63%. And the share in terms of card purchases amounted to almost 26%.

Also in 2017, the share of purchases paid by cards via the Internet is 14% of all purchases by cards. The number of such transactions increased by 26% in 2017, while in 2016 this figure increased by only 19%.

Contactless payments

Payment card holders appreciated the advantage and convenience of contactless payments. The number of contactless card payments has grown 3 times and takes 19% from all card purchases in POS terminals. The dynamic growth of these indicators contributed to a 23% increase in the number of POS terminals that accept contactless cards. To date, 96% of all POS terminals connected to the Ukrainian Processing Center and placed in retail chains accept contactless cards for payment.

Contactless payment method is more often used for mass payments for small amounts. The average amount of a check of contactless purchases in 2017 amounted to UAH 166, which is 12% more than in 2016.

Most often, Ukrainians paid contactless at gas stations, fast food restaurants, supermarkets, hardware stores, cosmetics stores and paid for metro travel. Despite the fact that the number of contactless subway fares has increased 5 times, their share is only 5% of all contactless transactions.

Transfers from card to card on the Internet

In 2017, payment card holders made even more transfers from card to card on the Internet. Last year, there was an increase in the number of such transfers by 56%, and the average amount of transactions was UAH 1,800. The share of transfers from the total number of financial transactions on payment cards in 2017 amounted to 1.4%, and in terms of volumes almost 2%.

The number of ATMs continues to decline

The number of ATM client banks of UPC decreased by 3%. At the same time, the indicators of the use of additional services by cardholders at ATMs, on the contrary, have increased. For example, the number of PIN Pin-change transactions increased 6 times due to the introduction of the Paperless PIN service by UPC customer banks at ATMs.

The number of deposit (cash-in) transactions in ATMs increased by 6%. However, cash settlements do not lose their popularity either. So the number of cash-out transactions increased by 3%.

"Based on the results of the analysis of 2017 indicators, it is possible to draw conclusions that the payment card market in Ukraine is recovering. Contactless payments, online purchases, payments through mobile applications and other innovative financial services contribute to the development of non-cash payments, "the Ukrainian Processing Center noted

2016

Visa forecast

Visa identified the main trends and drivers of growth in the Ukrainian e-commerce market by conducting a study for the 3rd quarter of 2016.

National Bank of Ukraine banned the use of Russian payment systems

4 electronic payment systems were banned: WebMoney, Yandex.Money, QIWI Wallet and Wallet one. The reason for this decision was the lack of coordination with the NBU of the provision of services. Read more: Ukraine's sanctions on Russia.

Meanwhile, Vkontakte"" launched money transfers to Ukraine, you can get a transfer to banks cards issued by Ukraine MasterCard and Maestro.

"We are convinced that against the background of news about the restriction of some money transfer systems in Ukraine, our service will be in demand," Yury Ivanov, director of e-commerce at VKontakte, was quoted in a press release. According to him, until January 8 of the following year, the social network and Mastercard organized a joint action, in which "when sending a transfer to Ukraine, a commission is not charged, and the recipient of the transfer is entitled to a gift." As Ivanov said, ​pri transferring money through a social network, the recipient can accept it within five days.

Transfers are made in Russian rubles, and when credited to a card with an account in hryvnia or other currency, the conversion takes place at the rate of the bank that issued the recipient's card.

2014

For the period from January to June 2014, the volume of electronic payments in Ukraine increased by 18% compared to the same period last year and amounted to UAH 6.694 trillion. This was reported in a press release from the National Bank of Ukraine.

For six months of 2014, participants in the electronic payment system (SEP) made 156.4 million initial payments, which is 4% less than in the first half of 2013. Most of the initial payments and electronic settlement messages were sent to the SEP by banks and their branches - 146 million documents, that is, 93% of the total.

On average, 1.3 million payments worth more than UAH 55.7 billion were processed per day in the period January-June within the framework of the SEP, the average daily balance of funds on the accounts of SEP participants amounted to UAH 31.45 billion (in the І half of 2013 - UAH 27.8 billion), and the average daily turnover of funds on the accounts of system participants - 1.77 (in the І half of 2013 - 1.70). "The third model of servicing the consolidated correspondent account was the highest demand among the CEP participants, according to which the legal entity has a consolidated correspondent account and an internal bank intercompany payment system, which ensures the transfer of funds between the branches of the bank and interaction with the SEP for the implementation of interbank transfer of funds by the branches of the bank," the NBU notes.

SEP participants who worked on this model made initial payments in the first half of the year and sent electronic settlement messages through the SEP in the amount of 70.8 million, which is 45% of their total number

Ukraine

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• IT market of Ukraine
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• Cybercrime and cyber conflicts: Ukraine
• IT Public Procurement (Ukraine)
• Cellular communication (Ukrainian market)
• Cell phones (Ukrainian market)
• Internet (Ukrainian market)
• Co-conference of Slon.ru on Electronic Payment Systems 2012 in Ukraine
• IPTV (Ukrainian market)