The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved the Open Banking Concept, which defines the development directions and roadmap for the introduction of API (application programming interface) in Ukraine as a platform for data exchange between payment service providers.
“The introduction of open banking in Ukraine will have a positive impact on the financial services market. In particular, it will contribute to the development of fintech, introduction of innovations in the payment sphere, strengthening competition and, as a result, improving the quality of existing and creating new payment services and products”, – the press service of the regulator reports the words of the deputy head of the NBU Alexey Shaban.
It is pointed out that open banking implies structured and secure data exchange between payment service providers through open APIs.
“We are talking about the development of a new ecosystem based on the application programming interface (API) and designed for the development of payment products and services – more diverse and attractive to customers,” the National Bank notes.
The regulator reminded that according to the law “On payment services” open banking in Ukraine should work in August 2025.
It is specified that open banking provides that banks and other providers of payment services for account maintenance should open their APIs for providers of non-financial payment services with the ability to connect to the interfaces of their services in order to access information on the user’s account and initiate payment transactions.
It is emphasized that in open banking only the user (individual or legal entity) decides who should access his account and a specific amount of information.
The National Bank calls the key advantage of such exchange the opportunity for users of financial services to choose a convenient and modern way of using their accounts, and for businesses to establish mutually beneficial cooperation and get more opportunities to develop their solutions. According to the NBU, with the help of open banking, users will be able to use their account funds more efficiently, using consolidated in one payment application information on the movement of funds and their balance on their accounts opened with different financial institutions.
Unlike traditional banking, open banking relies on the technology network of financial institutions and other non-financial payment service providers to enable them to efficiently share information with the prior consent of the user.
“Thanks to open banking, there will be a transformation of the payment market, stimulating the development of fintechs, new opportunities for the development and scaling of the ecosystem will appear, and the level of competition among payment market participants will increase. At the same time, the regulator will take care of a high level of protection of users’ rights and data security,” the regulator said.
The report notes that the National Bank will determine the basic principles of open banking and directions of its further development in accordance with the urgent needs of the market, as well as will take care of the legal regulation of its work and oversight of compliance of payment service providers with its requirements.
As emphasized in the NBU, technical specifications will be approved by the regulator on the basis of joint developments with market participants.
According to the roadmap for implementation of the concept, in December-February of this year the first version of the technical specifications will be developed by the NBU working groups, also in the fourth quarter of 2023 the first version of the specifications will be agreed by the regulator for testing.
In the first quarter of next year it is planned to form the requirements of stakeholders, in particular, general approaches to the implementation of supervision and protection of users’ rights, IT-security, protection of users’ personal data, as well as to form a list of NAPs (Normative legal acts) and conceptual changes, to determine the legal framework for piloting.
Then, in March-June 2024, the regulator plans to prepare and conduct the first stage of testing of a limited set of APIs and analyze it, identify areas for specification refinement, finalize and develop the second version of technical specifications.
In the second half of 2024, the NBU is going to conduct the second stage of API testing, with a wider set and range of participants, as a result of which the second version of specifications will be prepared. Also, by the end of next year it is planned to approve regulations on authorization, including authorization, finalize the register of payment infrastructure and the procedure of open banking and technical specifications.
