The MoneyGram international payment system jointly with Industrialbank (Kyiv) have launched the Account Deposit project, under which clients of 55 financial institutions in Ukraine, which are partners of the payment system, will be able to receive money remittances to the current account or card account from anywhere in the world, Board Chairman of Industrialbank Mykhailo Bukreyev has said.
“This product is innovative for our market, in fact, it allows minimizing both financial costs and the time spent,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday.
At the same time, he said that the Account Deposit project has been operating in test mode since November 2019.
MoneyGram Regional Director for Russia, the CIS, and Baltics Evgeny Butyugin said at the press conference that Ukraine is a dynamically developing market for money transfers. He recalled that according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in 2018, the volume of transfers amounted to more than $11 billion, and according to the World Bank, this figure amounted to more than $14 billion.
“Part of our strategy is to develop digital channels [for money transfers] in the country,” Butyugin said.
According to him, the partner of the Account Deposit project was chosen among the existing agents of the payment system in Ukraine.
“We have chosen our colleagues – partners from Industrialbank. The bank fully complies with the requirements of the American global public corporation. Firstly, they successfully passed a compliance audit. Secondly, we were able to agree on mutually beneficial commercial conditions. Thirdly, I would like to note the involvement of both the bank management and the project team in this project, thanks to which we were able to jointly be the first to launch this product on the Ukrainian market in the shortest possible time,” Butyugin said.
At the same time, he said that low tariffs are thanks to the use of digital service channels, which reduce the costs of both MoneyGram and Industrialbank.
According to Head of the Banknote Banking Department of Industrialbank Andriy Lvov, to make a money transfer, the client just needs to have a current or card account in the bank, he or she does not need to come to the office. According to Lvov, transfer fees under the Account Deposit project range from 0.5% to 2% of the transfer amount.
“Our plans are to take a market share of 5% of all transfers in Ukraine,” Lvov said asked about plans for the development of the Account Deposit project.
Industrialbank was founded in 1990. In December 2017, it was merged with Express Bank.
According to the NBU, on October 1, 2019, in terms of total assets (UAH 4.645 billion), Industrialbank ranked 28th among 76 banks operating in the country.
MoneyGram International, founded in 1940 in the city of Minneapolis (the United States), is one of the leaders in the global money transfer market. Its network consists of more than 357,000 branches, including retail chains, financial institutions and national postal services in more than 200 countries. The company has more than 14,000 branches in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is convinced of the need for joint development of transport capabilities with Azerbaijan, the presidential press service said.
“We should make full use of the unique transit potential of our countries and develop the appropriate infrastructure. We agreed to intensify cooperation in international aviation, road and railway transportation,” he said at a joint press briefing with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Baku.
In addition, the parties agreed to hold a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission of Ukraine and Azerbaijan in Kyiv in January. Zelensky noted that he expects “specific cases after this meeting, investments with very specific terms” following this meeting.
Special attention was paid to joint projects in the space and aviation sectors, in particular in aircraft construction.
Azerbaijan’s leader, in turn, called the negotiations fruitful and noted that Azerbaijani businessmen show a significant interest in cooperation with Ukraine, but much depends on the results of the intergovernmental commission.
AZERBAIJAN, COOPERATION, INTERNATIONALTRANSPORTATION, UKRAINE
SkyUp Airlines during the summer navigation schedule in March-June 2020 will launch flights from Kharkiv to Batumi, Tbilisi (both Georgia), Burgas (Bulgaria) and Tel Aviv (Israel).
According to the press service of the company, in particular, flights from Kharkiv to Batumi will start on May 29, 2020. They will be serviced on Tuesdays and Fridays. The price of the one way ticket starts from UAH 1,900 without baggage.
Flights from Kharkiv to Burgas are planned from June 2, 2020. They will be performed on Tuesdays. The price of the one way ticket starts from UAH 1,600 without baggage.
Flights from Kharkiv to Tel Aviv will be launched from March 29, 2020. They will be serviced on Thursdays and Sundays. The price of the one way ticket starts from UAH 2,400 without baggage.
Flights from Kharkiv to Tbilisi are also planned from March 29, 2020. They will be performed on Mondays and Thursdays. The price of the one way ticket starts from UAH 1,800 without baggage.
SkyUp Airlines LLC was registered in Kyiv in June 2016. The founder is ACS-Ukraine LLC of Tetiana and Yuriy Alba, who also own the JoinUp! tour operator.
Shebelynka gas refinery (Kharkiv region) in January-November 2019 increased oil refining by 6.1% (by 24,800 tonnes) compared to the same period in 2018, to 429,000 tonnes. According to the Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection, in November 2019 refining at the plant amounted to 41,000 tonnes, which 2.4 times (23,900 tonnes) more than in the same month last year.
In January-November 2019, the plant increased production of petrol by 17.8% (20,500 tonnes), to 135,400 tonnes, diesel fuel by 2.9% (2,200 tonnes), to 79,000 tonnes, fuel oil by 34.7% (9,200 tonnes), to 35,700 tonnes.
Capacity utilization at Shebelynka gas refinery in January-November this year stood at 46.8% compared to 44.1% in January-November 2018.
The parliamentary committee for agricultural and land policy is finalizing the provisions that foreigners would not be able to buy land until the decision to allow this is made at a national referendum, Deputy Head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, MP Yevheniya Kravchuk has said.. “Today, the meeting of our faction was held with one issue on the agenda – the introduction of the land market. Discussions continue. But not about whether it is needed or not, but about the parameters of the functioning of the market. And that means that we have come very close to the optimal solution that will suit Ukraine most of all. Namely, the committee for agricultural and land policy is finalizing the provisions that foreigners will not be able to buy land until a decision on this is made at a national referendum,” Kravchuk wrote on her official page in the Facebook social network on Monday night.
The MP said that this is about the concentration of no more than 10,000-20,000 hectares of land in the hands of one operator.
“As for the concentration of land in the hands of one operator, the threshold will be significantly reduced. Discussion is about 10,000-20,000 hectares, which is 90% less than what was proposed for first reading,” Kravchuk said.
According to Kravchuk, it is necessary to legislatively limit the possibility of speculation with the resale of land.
“We talked about the need to remove speculation with the resale of land in the first years after the market opened. Special safeguards are introduced for this, because people should not earn from selling land, but from products grown on it,” the MP said.
Statistics about passengers carried in Ukraine in Jan-Oct 2019
