On April 1, 2023, a new generation of the Electronic Payment System of the National Bank of Ukraine (SEP) became operational.
From now on, the system operates on the basis of the ISO 20022 international standard and is available for interbank payments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“One of the largest migrations ever carried out by financial institutions of Ukraine took place today. Such changes happen once in a generation. I am sure that this will become a powerful impetus for the future development and modernization of the information systems of Ukrainian banks and financial institutions, – noted the Deputy Chairman of the National Bank Oleksiy Shaban. – We thank all the teams, Ukrainian banks, developers, as well as every specialist, expert and manager who were involved in the process of creating, testing and implementing these powerful changes. Great things are done at any time, regardless of circumstances and difficulties.”
All banks, the State Treasury Service, the National Depository of Ukraine, as well as software development companies were involved in the process of migration to the new generation of SEP.
The new generation of SEP is built with the use of modern software and technical means, which makes it possible to make electronic payments even faster, more conveniently and more securely.
Thanks to the ISO 20022 standard, it became possible to unify payment messages, create uniform rules for their filling and processing, expand the requisite composition with additional fields and structured information. This will contribute to even greater automation and speeding up the processing of payment transactions, increasing the level of service for SEP participants and their customers.
In addition, the system now works 24/7, which provides round-the-clock execution of interbank payment transactions without suspending the system and an instant transition from the current to the next calendar day.
The transition to a new generation of SEP is an important technological prerequisite for the further qualitative development of the payment infrastructure of Ukraine. In particular, taking into account Ukraine’s acquisition of the status of a candidate for EU membership, the National Bank continues to actively work on the possibility of our country joining the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and implementing the functionality of instant payments in the next version of SEP-4.1, the testing of which by participants is planned for 2023 .
For reference
The electronic payment system of the National Bank (SEP) is a state banking payment system that ensures interbank settlements through accounts opened at the National Bank.
SEP belongs to the system of gross settlements in real time (according to the international classification – RTGS). The National Bank is the operator and settlement bank of this system.
As of April 1, 2023, SEP participants include 65 banks, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, the National Depository of Ukraine, and the National Bank of Ukraine.
