As part of its 19th package of sanctions, the European Union will impose a ban on transactions with five Russian credit institutions from November 12: Alfa Bank, MTS Bank, Absolut Bank, Zemsky Bank, and NKO Istina, according to an EU statement.
In addition, Belarusian Alfa Bank, Sberbank, VTB, Belgazprombank, BelVEB, as well as VTB’s subsidiary in Kazakhstan and VTB’s branch in Shanghai have been added to the EU sanctions list.
BAN, BANK, BELARUS, EUROPEAN UNION, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SANCTION, TRANSACTION
The transaction volume of the international financial service NovaPay (TM NovaPay) in January-September 2025 increased by 25% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 267 billion, while the number of transfers during this period increased by 5%, to 307 million.
“The results for the nine months confirm the correctness of the chosen development vector,” NovaPay CEO Igor Syrovatka is quoted as saying in the company’s press release on Tuesday.
It is noted that in the first nine months of this year, the company transferred more than UAH 1.1 billion in taxes to the state budget, compared to UAH 1 billion in the first nine months of last year.
Last year, based on the results of nine months, NovaPay reported a 29% increase in transaction volume, a 26% increase in the number of transfers, and a 22% increase in taxes.
According to data from YouControl, NovaPay LLC’s revenue in the first half of this year grew by 9.3% to UAH 4 billion 539.75 million, while net profit fell by 42.1% to UAH 966.98 million.
Loan services are also provided by the subsidiary NovaPay Credit, which actively raises money through bond placements. In the first half of this year, NovaPay Credit, according to reports on its website, increased its net profit by 52.2% compared to the first half of last year, to UAH 53.92 million, with revenue growing 2.7 times, to UAH 260.36 million.
The number of customers using the mobile application of the international financial service NovaPay (TM NovaPay), launched at the end of 2023, reached 750,000, the company reported in July 2025, which at the end of last year reported 500,000 customers.
NovaPay was founded in 2001 as an international financial service, part of the Nova group (Nova Poshta), providing online and offline financial services in Nova Poshta branches. According to the website, the company employs about 13,000 people in more than 3,600 Nova Poshta branches throughout Ukraine. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the company accounts for about 35% of the total volume of domestic money transfers.
NovaPay was the first non-bank financial institution in Ukraine to receive an extended license from the NBU in 2023, which allowed it to open accounts and issue cards, and was also the first non-bank to launch its own financial application with a wide range of financial services at the end of last year.
Metinvest, the vertically integrated steel and mining group of companies, has signed its first smart contract on we.trade blockchain trade finance platform supported by UniCredit.
According to a press release provided by Metinvest Group, this blockchain transaction demonstrates the importance of digitalization in the steel industry.
“Importantly, this is the first blockchain transaction provided by UniCredit to Metinvest Group and is a new digital instrument for us. Blockchain technology allows for the creation and management of a large distributed transaction management database that can be shared across multiple nodes of a network. Such transactions demonstrate the Group’s willingness to work in a trusted environment with secure technology, improved risk mitigation and enhanced visibility,” a press service quotes Head of Corporate Finance at the European Re-rolling Business Unit of Metinvest Group, Jamilya Baimukhambetova, as saying.
According to the press release, the underlying transaction is the purchase of equipment for one of Metinvest’s production re-rollers from a European supplier. One of the pilot project’s objectives is to try the new platform from the client side, so that the Group can evaluate its potential as a new type of payment terms that it can offer to some of its major customers.
Exploring the potential of blockchain trade finance is one way that Metinvest Group is implementing its digital innovation strategy, the Group said in its press release.
The we.trade platform works in partnership with major European banks (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) and is based on distributed ledger technology, the major underlying elements of which include blockchain and smart contracts. When a smart contract is created on the we.trade platform, the payment will be automatically triggered according to the terms agreed by the counterparties once the buyer has confirmed the delivery of the goods, making the transaction considerably faster and more transparent.
According to the press release, we.trade is a truly successful inter-bank collaboration that can help to redefine business relationships among companies, removing obstacles that typically make international transactions costly and complex while delivering benefits for corporates.
Metinvest Group is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies that manages every link of the value chain, from mining and processing iron ore and coal to making and selling semi-finished and finished steel products. It comprises steel and mining production facilities located in Ukraine, Europe and the US, as well as a sales network covering all key global markets. Metinvests business is divided for financial reporting purposes into two segments: metallurgical and mining. The Group ended the first quarter with revenues of $2.9 billion and an EBITDA margin was 15%.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
