When a volunteer is not subject to new restrictions on card payments

Starting from October 1, 2024 , the National Bank of Ukraine , by its Resolution No. 102 dated August 27, 2024, temporarily sets a limit of UAH 150,000 per month for card-to-card transfers (also known as P2P) for individuals for six months.

The limit will apply only to outgoing transfers across all accounts of the client opened in the same bank to the accounts of other individuals.

The limit will not be applied to accounts of volunteers who meet the criteria set out in the resolution and individuals whose monthly income from verified sources exceeds the amount of the limit.

Also, the limits will not be applied to transfers between the client's own accounts opened in the same bank and to transfers of legal entities.

Transactions using IBAN details are not limited.

The NBU's analysis shows that about UAH 200 billion a year can be transferred through drop cards.

"This information is certainly not surprising, but the question remains unanswered as to why no one has been held accountable for the entire period of existence of this blatant violation, or even a crime against the country's economy. Who benefited from this, who is now trying to show efficiency?" emphasizes MP Nina Yuzhanina.

"At the same time, the regulator claims that 98% of bank customers will not feel these changes.

So what prevented them from stopping the crime of 2% of bank customers against the country's defense capability, given the available monitoring and control tools?" asks N. Yuzhanina.

The Resolution provides for a number of criteria for volunteer activities, in case of compliance with which the limits will not be applied:

♦ the individual user is officially registered as a volunteer

♦ holding volunteer meetings is a typical activity on the accounts of the individual user with the payment service provider;

♦ the individual user has submitted a letter from a government agency/military unit/charitable foundation regarding cooperation in organizing a fundraiser;

♦ the individual user has provided information on the planned amount and timing of fundraising, indicating the purpose of such fundraising and the further use of the funds raised;

♦ information from open sources, social networks and the Internet, by comparing it with other information available to the payment service provider, confirms that the individual user is engaged in volunteer activities and the purpose of the collection held as part of volunteer activities.

Commenting on these criteria, the MP believes that "it's too much" and is surprised that the volunteers agreed to such criteria during a meeting with the NBU.

In her opinion, a single criterion would be enough: a person must be officially registered as a volunteer.