PROSTIRA valuable counterexample: a national card scheme run by the central bank, technically accepted at about 95% to 100% of POS terminals, yet stuck below 1% market share because banks barely issue it. It shows that acceptance is not enough: bank issuance is the real bottleneck for a domestic scheme. A co-badged PROSTIR-UnionPay card exists.Natsionalnyi bank Ukrainy (NBU) · since 2004214,000 ACTIVE cards in early 2026, about 0.3% of Ukraine’s 65.4 million active cards (only 44% of the 148.7 million cards issued are active). As of January 1, 2026, Visa held 53.6% and Mastercard 46.0%, leaving only about 0.4% for everyone else (NBU, 2026). 516,000 PROSTIR cards issued, 48 members, 603,000 terminals, and 15,000 ATMs (NBU / prostir.gov.ua, 2026)
Global registry · Europe · Central and Eastern Europe
Ukraine Payment systems
5 systems listed.
This country doesn’t have a written market analysis yet: e-commerce shares, regulator, and key players are still to be documented. The systems below, however, are verified.
IBAN · Ukraine
29 characters123 bank codes296 BIC codes
- Total length
- 29 characters
- Bank code position
- 5–10
- BBAN structure
6!n19!c
Structurally valid example
UAcountry code21check digits399622bank0000026007233566001account
UA21 3996 2200 0002 6007 2335 6600 1
Learn about this market. The guides and courses that cover it.
Merchant, acquirer, PSPPayment regulationCentral banks and payment infrastructuresAgents, distributors, and banking-as-a-service: who is liable for whatPayments in the BalkansPayments in the Baltics and FinlandAccepting payments in Germany, Austria, and SwitzerlandAccepting payments in Spain and PortugalChoosing a jurisdiction for your payment institutionAccepting payments in the Netherlands and BelgiumAccepting payments in the NordicsAccepting payments in Poland and Central Europe
Card schemes
Clearing and settlement
SEP (Systema Elektronnykh Platezhiv)The National Bank of Ukraine’s real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, not a retail clearing house: it handles about 99% of interbank payments in hryvnias. Unusually, this RTGS also carries retail traffic (customer payments, salary transfers). The SEP-4.0 generation, live since April 1, 2023, runs 24/7/365 on ISO 20022 messaging, a modernization carried out in the middle of a war, which is remarkable in itself.Natsionalnyi bank Ukrainy (NBU) · since 1993
Wallets
Privat24PrivatBank’s online banking platform and mobile app, and a mass-market payment channel in Ukraine: card-to-card transfers, bill and utility payments, and mobile top-ups, including by SMS with no internet connection. Because it rests on the country’s largest bank network, it carries far more weight than monobank or NovaPay.PrivatBank (Ukraine’s largest bank, nationalized in December 2016)
NovaPayPayment institution backed by Ukraine’s largest logistics company: transfers, bill payments, deferred payment, and financial services delivered at parcel pickup points. The logistics-plus-finance model fits a country where cash on delivery still shapes the market. A common mix-up: 2001 is when the NOVA group was founded, not NovaPay.ТОВ «НоваПей» (EDRPOU code (Ukrainian company ID) 38324133, member of the NOVA group (Nova Poshta); registered with the National Bank of Ukraine as a payment service provider (license No. 21/770-рк of April 28, 2023) and holder of FX license No. 58 of May 1, 2023)2.5 million transactions a day, 3,600 service points, and 22.7% of Ukraine’s money transfer market, according to NBU data; 258 million transfers in the first half of 2026 (NovaPay, novapay.ua, 2026)
monobankMobile-only Ukrainian bank that has become one of the country’s main payment channels. It has no license of its own and operates under Universal Bank’s, a distinction that matters when assessing counterparty risk. Its built-in fundraising jars have made it the de facto infrastructure for wartime donations.АТ «Універсал Банк» (bank holding National Bank of Ukraine license No. 92 of January 20, 1994; monobank is its consumer mobile app)more than 1.6 million people donate each month through the jar feature, for a cumulative UAH 100 billion raised (monobank, monobank.ua, accessed August 2026)