Interbank Settlements

General provisions

An important constituent part of efficient functioning of System of Electronic Payments  is normative and legal basis targeted to establish favorable conditions for the payment system efficient functioning, providing of  timely settling accounts between economic entities.

Basic law, which determines general principles of functioning payment systems in Ukraine and general procedure of effecting  money transfer within Ukraine is the Law of Ukraine "On Payment Systems and Money Transfer in Ukraine". This Law qualifies the System of Electronic Payments of the National Bank of Ukraine (below referred to as SEP) as the National System of Interbank Settlements. 

General requirements as to functioning in Ukraine the System of Interbank Settlements and to procedure of effecting Interbank Fund Transfers in Ukraine are regulated with the Instructin on interbank  fund transfer in Ukraine in domestic currency (approved by the Resolution  # 320 of 16.08.2006 of the Board of the National bank of Ukraine and registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine under # 1035/12909 of 06.09.2006) (as amended).

SEP provides effecting of settlements within Ukraine between banks by orders of bank customers and by commitments of banks. SEP shall effect interbank transfer in the file mode in the real time mode. Effecting of initial payment in the file mode is compulsory, but in the real time mode - at the bank's option. At the same time, a bank which works in SEP in the file mode shall provide receiving of payments in  the real time mode.

The exchange of payment documents in the file mode is organized in the package mode, with receive-transfer technological cycles,  a cycle shall last for 15-20 minutes. A receiver shall obtain his transfer only after confirming with a corresponding receipt a receive of payment file.

In the real time mode a transferred amount is entered in a receiver's account straight away, at the moment of payment receipt from a SEP sender. This is the main characteristic of RTGS payment systems according to the international classification.

System participants

As of April 1, 2009, 1504 institutions are SEP participants, including:
       182 - Ukrainian banks;
       1258 - Ukrainian banks' branches;
       28 - bodies of the State Treasury of Ukraine;
       36 - institutions of the National Bank of Ukraine.

The system participants shall decide on their own whether they work on independent or consolidated correspondent account.

As of April 1, 2009, 115 banks worked on independent correspondent account, which make 62.5% of the total number of banks - legal entities which are the system participants. In the 1st Quarter of 2009 they have effected  12129 thousand of initial payments to the amount of 488820 UAH million, which is, correspondingly, by 17 % and 10 % more comparing to the same period of 2008.

Other banks, and namely 68 commercial banks, which make 37 % of the total number of banks - legal entities which are the system participants worked on consolidated correspondent account as of  01.04.2009.

 The sharing of the system participants on models of servicing of consolidated correspondent account was as such (Diagram 1):

• on 3 model there worked 52 banks;
• on 4 model there worked 11 banks;
• on 7 model there worked 5 banks;

On the single treasury accounts (8 model) there worked the State Treasury of Ukraine, which in In the 1st Quarter of 2009 effected  6229 thousand of initial payments to the amount of 192108 UAH million, which is, correspondingly, by 1 % and 17% more comparing to the same period of 2008.

In the 1st Quarter of 2009 the SEP services in the real time mode were used by 483 institutions (32% of the total number of SEP participants), but only 60 participants effected initial payments in this mode, and namely: 23 banks and 10 bank branches, the National Bank of Ukraine and its institutions.

SEP work load

In the 1st Quarter of 2009 the system participants effected 72085 thousand initial payments and electronic payment messages to the amount of 1 513785 UAH million, which is, correspondingly, by 13% and 15% less comparing to the 1st Quarter of  2008, including:

• initial payments, effected in the file mode - 71526 thousand pieces;
• initial payments, effected in the real time mode - 75 thousand pieces;
• electronic payment messages 484 thousand pieces.

The prevailing number of initial payments, and namely: 91 % of their total number was effected by bank institutions.

The data given in the Table 1 show that the most popular among SEP participants was the 3 (third) model of servicing the  consolidated correspondent account. According to this model, a legal entity shall have a  consolidated correspondent account, and the intra-bank payment system shall be used for effecting transfers between bank branches and for the inter-bank transfers. In the 1st Quarter of 2009 the SEP participants working by this model have effected 40597 thousand initial payments and electronic payment messages (or 56 % of the total volume), which is by 4871 thousand payments (or by 11%) less comparing to the same indicators of 2008.

Comparing to  the 1st Quarter of 2008 the number of initial payments effected by the SEP in the file mode has decreased by 12%, according to the amount - by 20 % (Diagram 2), and in the real time mode the number of initial payments and electronic payment messages decreased by 56 %, however according to the amount, they increased  in 4.5 times (Diagram 3).

Structure of initial payments by the amount of payment in the first Quarter of 2009

The data given in the Table show that number of initial payments by the amount of payment up to 1000 hryvnias equaled 51568 thousand pieces, or 72 % of the total number of payments.

At this, payments up to 1000 hryvnias were effected to the amount of 11023 UAH million, or 0.73 %, and payments exceeding 1000 hryvnias -  to the amount of 1 503130 UAH million, or 99.27 % of the total amount of payments of 1 514153 UAH million.

SEP average daily indices

1181 thousand of initial payments and electronic payment messages were processed by the system in the 1st Quarter of 2009 on a daily basis to the amount of 24816 UAH million. The average daily work load of the system made up:

• in the file mode: by the number - 1180 thousand of initial payments and electronic payment messages to the amount of 22998 UAH million, which is correspondingly by 12% and 20% less than in in the 1st Quarter of 2008;

• in the real time mode: by the number - about 1 thousand of initial payments and electronic payment messages to the amount of 1818 UAH million, which is correspondingly, by 67% less  according to the number and in 4.5 times more according to the amount of initial payments than in the relative period of the previous year.

The average daily balance of funds with accounts of the system participants amounted  to almost 24 UAH billion.

The average daily ratio of funds circulation with accounts of the system participants amounted to 1.05.

The analysis of the statistical data of the system of electronic payments of the National Bank of Ukraine as to fund transfer between banks shows that in the 1st Quarter of 2009 the system performed its functions of the national system of interbank settlements, fully satisfied needs of the system participants as to fund transfer, provided for maximum rate, transparency, high safety level and  reliability of effected payments.