NBU board head: Law on non-cash payments protects interests of citizens and domestic banks

The adopted law on amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine (regarding payment systems and the development of non-cash payments) will serve interests of people and Ukrainian banks, the head of the National Bank of Ukraine board Ihor Prasolov said in the interview with the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper.

"Now the tariff policy of VISA and MasterCard is opaque and incomprehensible. They only inform the customers: "We raise fee" or "we raise the amount of the deposit, placed by the bank for its customers to use credit cards." This is another negative for our country, because our banks keep currency abroad - VISA pointed them the list of foreign banks, where they can keep it. This requires constant currency purchases by banks to form these deposits. Under the new law, the relevant deposit will be reserved in the national currency and there will be no additional pressure on the foreign exchange market," Prasolov said.

"As for the people, the law strengthens the protection of consumers' rights: all bank customers will know in advance the fee size for ATM transactions. The NBU will demand transparent tariff policy for the people from payment systems," Prasolov said.