The National Bank of Ukraine is preparing for the second testing phase of the digital hryvnia (e-hryvnia). Ukrainian banks have already received invitations to participate in the pilot project.
This was announced by Andriy Poddierogin, Director of the Payment Systems and Innovative Development Department at the NBU, in the "Economic Chronicles" podcast.
"We plan to make this pilot project open. Both banking and non-banking institutions will act as agents of the central bank for distributing money, exchanging it, and providing users with the ability to manage it using their mobile applications," said Poddierogin.
According to him, the NBU has already sent invitations to banks to participate in the pilot project. Subsequently, those banks that confirm their participation will invite their clients to participate.
The electronic form of the Ukrainian currency, e-hryvnia, will be a direct obligation of the central bank. According to the regulator's definition, the digital Ukrainian currency will complement both cash and non-cash forms of money and perform all of their functions. The NBU has emphasized that the use of e-hryvnia should be convenient and accessible to all segments of the population, legal entities, government agencies, banks, and non-bank financial institutions.
The start of the second pilot project using the e-hryvnia is planned for the second half of 2024. It is estimated to last for about six months.
Within the experiment, all interested parties will be able to exchange their cash and non-cash money for e-hryvnia.
"We do not plan to follow the approach used in China, where money was distributed to attract people," Poddierogin added.
As part of the experiment, they plan to test the ability to make transactions with digital money in offline mode.
The first experiment with the use of e-hryvnia by the NBU took place in 2018. At that time, the National Bank issued 5,443 e-hryvnias, which were used only by the employees of the regulator.
In total, 208 transfer operations between e-wallets, 82 operations to replenish these wallets, 42 operations to exchange e-hryvnias for non-cash money, 40 transfer operations for the needs of soldiers fighting in the Donbas, and 19 operations to top up the mobile account (operator LifeCell) were carried out at that time.
