The concept of open banking in Ukraine has been approved

On August 10, the National Bank of Ukraine approved the Concept of Open Banking, which defines the directions of further development, the road map and key requirements for the implementation of Open Banking in Ukraine.

The concept was developed together with working groups of payment market participants.

Open banking involves an organized and secure exchange of data between payment service providers through open application programming interfaces (APIs). The main advantage of such an exchange is the opportunity for users of financial services to choose a convenient and modern way of using their accounts, and for businesses to create profitable symbioses and cooperation, getting more opportunities to develop their own solutions.

The main theses of the Concept of the National Bank include:

• Open banking will play a key role in the future of the financial market, creating a new ecosystem based on application programming interfaces (APIs) for the development of diverse and convenient payment products and services for customers.
• The essence of open banking is that banks and other payment service providers must open their APIs to non-financial payment service providers, which will allow access to user account information and initiate payment transactions. Interaction within the framework of open banking is based on the principles of mutual benefit, non-discrimination and preservation of the interests of all parties to meet the needs of users.
• In open banking, the user independently decides to whom to grant access to his account and specific data. This will allow users to use their funds more efficiently, having consolidated information on the movement of funds in different accounts in different financial institutions.
• Open banking depends on a technological network of banks and providers of non-financial payment services that exchange information with the prior consent of the user.
• This approach will contribute to the transformation of the payment market, the development of fintech’s and the increase of competition between market participants.
• The National Bank of Ukraine will develop and approve regulatory acts for the implementation of open banking.

According to the Law "On Payment Services", open banking should be introduced in Ukraine by August 2025.