You can spend no more than 500 UAH a day, up to 4,000 UAH a month.
The National Bank is restricting operations with electronic money in Ukraine. Yesterday, the NBU published resolution No. 378, establishing a daily limit for web transactions at 500 UAH, a monthly limit of 4,000 UAH, and an annual limit of 35,000 UAH. These requirements will take effect on July 25 (the planned publication date of the document).
At the same time, financial experts clarify that all these limits will not personally affect every Ukrainian, but only their electronic wallets. In other words, no one can prevent you from creating a dozen web wallets and using each within the approved limits set by the NBU.
“The new resolution does not contain any requirements for the identification of electronic wallet holders. The key task of the NBU is to ensure legitimacy and control over the circulation of electronic money in the country. This is absolutely normal given the nature of such money. I assume that after some time the regulator may initiate the introduction of an identification procedure for electronic wallet holders. This would further narrow the possibilities for abuse,” commented Evgeny Dumchev, head of the terminal business organization department at the National Credit Bank, to Vesti.
Currently, there is only one restriction in Ukraine: a person is allowed to hold no more than 8,000 UAH in one electronic wallet. The NBU has not introduced any other prohibitions so far and has not significantly affected the electronic money market: all officials did was require payment systems to undergo mandatory registration with them. They have not always achieved this, for example, one of the most popular systems in our country, WebMoney, has not passed all the necessary procedures at the central bank, writes vesti.ua.
The new resolution from the NBU is nothing more than an attempt to increase control over the internet payment market. A market whose popularity is growing day by day, but primarily worldwide: according to research from WorldPay, the share of online purchases made using alternative payment methods is expected to rise from the current 43% to 59% by 2017.
In Ukraine, electronic money has not yet become widely spread, although the number of users is already in the hundreds of thousands. “For example, our system has about 200,000 users, and since the beginning of 2014, their number has increased by almost 20%. So far, a small part of the population is ready for such 'exotic' payment tools. But we expect that as the internet penetrates the population, online transaction volumes will grow,” noted Yuri Chaika, founder of the electronic money system MoneXy, in a conversation with Vesti.
With electronic money, Ukrainians make small purchases, so they will hardly feel the new restrictions imposed by the NBU. “The average user, who wants to pay for mobile operator services, carries out transactions worth 20-40 UAH. At the same time, a regular electronic wallet user, who does not limit himself to mobile payments, refills it with an average of 200-250 UAH,” they told Vesti in the press service of the international payment system GlobalMoney. Notably, they pointed out the impact of events in Donbas on web payment activity. “Due to the tragic events, there has been a slight decline in user activity. However, as of the second quarter of 2014, the situation began to stabilize: the decline in the number of payments decreased by 15% compared to January-February of the same year,” said GlobalMoney.
Payment for mobile services is the most common use of electronic money in Ukraine. “They are also used to pay for TV, internet, and utility services. The second and third places are occupied by payments for food delivery, restaurants, and specialized grocery stores (for example, selling alcoholic beverages and tobacco products),” the FidoBank told Vesti.