The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) hopes to cut cash from 14.3% in 2015 to 9.5% of GDP in 2020, NBU Governor Valeriya Gontareva has said.
“We set the introduction of cashless payments as a top priority task. We believe that this is one of the key strategic directions for developing the Ukrainian banking system. According to the NBU’s data, last year the public received 58% of income in the cashless form. However, only 18% of expenses were cashless. This is the evidence that the majority of population get used to withdraw money from payment cards in cash at ATMs. Our ambitious goal is to cut cash from 14.3% of GDP in 2015 to 9.5% of GDP in 2020”, Gontareva said.
She said that the top priority directions for introducing cashless payments are daily transactions, in particular, payment for transportation, utility services and the transfer of all payments by the state, starting from pensions and educational scholarships, into cashless form.
Gontareva said that the public program to introduce cashless economy would help to unite efforts of all public agencies and market players to implement a joint cashless payment project.
She said that the NBU’s efforts would focus on reducing demand on cash, popularization of cashless payments, development of payment infrastructure and changing habits of people. (Interfax/Business World Magazine)