Visa and MasterCard decided to support Ukrainians during the war and to raise the interest rate for Ukrainian businesses on the interchange from 0.7% to 0.9%. Even though even the current price for the services of these 2 companies in Ukraine is one of the highest in Europe.
This decision raises several questions, especially since the war almost did not affect Visa/MasterCard, and the companies' net profit over the past year amounted to $14.96 billion and $9.93 billion. Today there is no alternative payment system in Ukraine, and the share of these 2 corporations in the payment system of Ukraine is 99.4%.
How will the increase in the interchange rate affect Ukrainian businesses and individuals? Firstly, the commission for acquiring will increase, which will create additional hundreds of millions of hryvnias in annual expenses for businesses. Therefore, the cost of goods and services in Ukraine will increase.
Entrepreneurs appealed to the president's office, the cabinet of ministers and the National Bank with a request to resolve the situation and prevent an increase in the cost of services, at least until the end of martial law. The introduction of the new interest rate was scheduled for July 1. There is no information yet on the implementation or non-implementation of this plan.
