Economy in electronic settlements may reach 1% of GDP - Burakovsky
2012-11-08 11:48:13
Rapid development of information-communication technologies caused the need in innovation payment instruments - electronic money (EM).
Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Economic Research and Policy Consulting Ihor Burakovsky noted at a press conference while he presented an Analytical Report “Electronic Money in Ukraine.”
“Cost of electronic settlements is less against cash settlements. Economy may reach 1% of GDP. In the countries with the higher per capita GDP level a greater number of cashless payments is registered,” Ihor Burakovsky has said.
According to him, e-money promote development of new economy sectors, in particular, tourism, e-commerce, which in turn increases competition in retail trade, stimulates consumption and boosts effectiveness of the resource use.
The Report cites definition of the term “electronic money,” the state of its development in Ukraine and other countries, the best international experience of the e-money market regulation and a concept of its regulation in Ukraine. In particular, it is proposed to permit the issue of e-money not only to banks, but to companies-e-money operators (an exclusive type of economic activities); to determine requirements to operators; to permit using e-money for all settlements between natural, legal and state sectors by monitoring and carrying out 100% reserving to ensure the issue at the NBU special account.
Regulation norms should be determined at the level of the law. At the same time, a balance should be observed between protection of consumers' rights, state supervision and obstacles should not be created for development of the e-money market.
According to head of the group of companies WebMoney.Ua Oleksiy Titov, the most reliable operators may be non-bank companies with ensuring the issue at the NBU. Open cycle should not be there: participation of BtoB companies, as well as state companies should be allowed, besides natural persons.
According to Imena.ua president Oleksandr Olshansky, the needs of e-commerce are not well covered by available payment instruments. At the same time, according to the existing legislation, which is not well regulated, national payment systems will not be able to develop. Excessive regulation may lead to functioning of e-money outside the framework of the country's jurisdiction.
As director of the payment system MoneyXy Taras Kryshtal noted, for instance, in Russia during the crisis not a single payment system closed, but it happened with banks.
E-money fulfills the functions of payment, accumulation, exist in the electronic form, have not own internal cost or it is not comparable with their face value, the issuer ensures it with money, sometimes other high-liquid assets and undertakes to change e-money for ordinary money and vice versa on demand.
E-money is most intensively used in Asia, in particular, in Singapore, Japan and Malaysia. The market is not so quickly growing in the EU, as expected. Total issue of e-money for May this year was EUR 2.7 billion, which is about 1% of total number of cash in circulation. E-money develops most dynamically in Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Italy.