Ukraine Joins the Single Euro Payments Area

The Ministry of Finance reports that the Government has approved a package of draft amendments to certain legislative acts regarding Ukraine’s accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

This is a strategic step toward integration into the European financial space, which is already used by more than 500 million people and businesses in 42 European countries.

The draft laws are aimed at bringing Ukrainian legislation in the field of prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing into line with EU and FATF standards, which is an integral part of fulfilling Ukraine’s obligations within the European integration process.

Ukrainians and businesses will gain the ability to make international euro transfers quickly, without excessive fees, and under uniform rules applicable to all SEPA member countries.

Key changes предусмотрені draft laws include:

• Establishment of a Register of accounts and individual bank safe deposit boxes of individuals, to be administered by the Ministry of Finance, containing only the IBAN, the account holder’s full name, and the name of the bank.
• Preservation of banking secrecy. The Register will contain only 1/13 of the full scope of information defined by Article 60 of the Law of Ukraine “On Banks and Banking Activities.”
• Access to the Register will be granted only to authorized state authorities (the State Financial Monitoring Service, ARMA, NACP, the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, NABU, BEB, SBI, the National Police of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine) via secure channels and solely within investigations of serious crimes.
• Introduction of a register of ultimate beneficial owners of trusts or other similar legal arrangements, to be administered by the Ministry of Finance, in order to ensure transparency of financial flows.
• Improvement of procedures for verifying ultimate beneficial owners of legal entities, including new mechanisms and sanctions in line with AML/CFT standards.
• Additional protection for whistleblowers in the field of financial monitoring and expansion of the range of primary financial monitoring entities to strengthen control over illegal financial transactions.
• Enhanced oversight of the transparency and integrity of owners of financial institutions.

The legislative changes will ensure:

• lower banking fees, faster cross-border payments, increased transparency of the financial system, and reduced corruption risks;
• a new impetus for integration into the European financial space and access to EU macro-financial assistance;
• reduced transaction costs.