What Is Happening?
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Go-live date: 1 August 2025
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Scope: All retail banks operating under the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) licence
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Key feature: “Account-to-account sweep” — when a customer pays with a card, the system can draw the necessary funds from any authorised hryvnia account the holder owns, regardless of the issuing bank.
How It Works
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Customer consent
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In their mobile-banking apps, clients opt-in and specify which accounts can be pooled for payments.
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Purchase event
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At the point of sale (in-store or online), the card transaction pings an NBU-managed API hub.
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The hub checks the default funding account; if the balance is insufficient, it cascades to the next linked account(s).
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Real-time top-up
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Missing funds are instantly transferred, the merchant receives a single settlement, and the client sees one consolidated receipt.
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Benefits for Everyday Users
| Pain Point Today | What Changes with Open Banking |
|---|---|
| Manual transfers between cards before large purchases | Automatic balance aggregation |
| Multiple apps to check balances | Single dashboard of all accounts |
| Failed payments due to insufficient funds on one card | Seamless fallback to other authorised accounts |
Next Steps for Banks
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API readiness: all banks must connect to the NBU’s open-banking interface by 31 July 2025.
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Security audits: strong customer authentication (SCA) and consent-management modules under NBU guidelines.
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Consumer education: each bank will roll out in-app tutorials and updated terms of service from Q2 2025.
Quote
“Open banking will give Ukrainians a personal financial cockpit. Paying from ‘the right account’ becomes frictionless, and visibility over total balances improves dramatically,”
Olena Korobkova, Executive Director, Independent Association of Ukrainian Banks
Bottom line: From August 2025, a single Ukrainian payment card will behave like a smart wallet, automatically pooling funds across all the accounts a customer authorises—marking a major milestone in the country’s digital-financial roadmap.
