In January-June this year, payment systems transferred $1.306 billion to Ukraine, with Western Union (USA) receiving the largest amount of funds – 48.6% of all transfers, the National Bank of Ukraine reported on Friday.
According to the report, MoneyGram (USA) took the second place in the market, increasing its share by 4.3 percentage points to 21.6% compared to May-December last year and overtaking PrivatMoney, whose share dropped from 20% to 13.5%.
In addition, the share of RIAs increased from 9.7% to 12.35%, and the share of Intelexpress increased from 2.7% to 3.04%.
According to the National Bank, a total of 5.72 million cross-border transfers were made, with the largest amount of funds coming to Ukraine from Italy (20.85%), the United States (17.74%), Israel (15.59%), Germany (8.61%) and Ireland (5.2%). The average amount of one such transfer to Ukraine was $228.
In May-December last year, 10.4 million transfers were made for $2.149 billion, with Western Union’s share at that time amounting to 49.5%, the NBU reminded.
The NovaPay payment system remained the leader in domestic money transfers in terms of systems, but the share of transfers made through it decreased from 45% in May-December 2022 to 35% in the first half of this year.
The Financial World system of Ukrainian Payment System LLC came in second place with a share of 15.6% (12.72% in 2022), while the LEO payment system, which held the top spot last year, had its registration revoked by the National Bank in March of this year.
The Moneycom payment system of Swift Guarantor LLC rose from 7th place in the ranking in May-December 2022 (2.51%) to the top three in the first half of 2023 with a share of 12.4%.
The positions in the ranking of the next three market participants have not changed: Ukrposhta is in fourth place in terms of the amount of transfers – 10.3% (12.22%), City 24 FC Phoenix – 7.93% (3.39%) and PrivatMoney PrivatBank – 5.65% (2.61%), followed by Platiservice – 5.15% (1.74%).
In terms of participants in the first half of the year, the share of NovaPay decreased to 35.58% (45.46%), Ukrposhta – to 10.29% (12.22%), while FC “Kontraktovyi Dom” increased to 13.26% (9.92%), and “Swift Guarantor” – to 18.71% (3.79%). The National Bank reminded that in early March it withdrew from the market Aibox Bank, which held 11.57% of the market in May-December last year.
According to the NBU, 390.2 million domestic transfers amounting to UAH 300.6 billion (or $8.221 billion in equivalent) were made in the first half of the year, with the average amount of one transfer within Ukraine amounting to UAH 770.
In May-December last year, transfers amounted to 446.35 million for UAH 292.6 billion.
It is noted that as of July 1 of this year, 35 money transfer systems were operating in the country, including 26 resident and 9 non-resident ones.
The international systems Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria Money Transfer, INTEL EXPRESS and TransferGo have canceled fees for transfers to Ukraine, the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on Thursday.
According to the announcement, Ria has activated its global donation network for the Save the Children organization to help Ukrainian children who have been affected by the war in Ukraine and their families.
In addition, the INTELEXPRESS international money transfer system can make instant and free transfers to special accounts to raise funds to support the Ukrainian army and humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.
At the same time, the global payment network Euronet, which has an extensive system of ATMs in the world, has abolished fees for its services for the citizens of Ukraine.
In addition, the Polish instant payment system Blik has created a special page for raising funds to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The funds will be transferred to the NBU account opened in the state-owned bank – Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.
INTEL EXPRESS, MONEYGRAM, RIA MONEY TRANSFER, TRANSFERGO, TRANSFERS, UKRAINE, WESTERN UNION
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.
