The PayPal payment system has officially launched in Ukraine, cards of Ukrainian banks can already be linked to a wallet.
This was announced by the Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov.
“We are pleased to announce the launch of personal transfer services, and also allow you to transfer funds from your PayPal wallet to credit or debit cards. We believe this will help people in Ukraine receive funds from their friends and family around the world,” the letter says. the company addressed to Fedorov.
"Now you can make purchases on the Internet, transfer money and withdraw money to Ukrainian bank cards," the minister writes. Already now you can link Ukrainian bank cards and use it.
IMF Deputy Executive Director Vladislav Rashkovan retold the words of PayPal CEO Dan Shulman on his Facebook page - "over the past 2.5 weeks, 400 employees of the company have done what they usually spend 9-12 months on."
The company notes that it is also temporarily waiving commissions on transactions with Ukrainian PayPal accounts to help Ukrainians transfer and receive money during the war. Fedorov thanked the company for the prompt response at the request of Ukraine and the support of citizens.
Earlier, on March 8, PayPal decided to suspend services for sending and receiving payments in Russia. On the same day, Fedorov thanked the PayPal management for suspending business in the Russian Federation and invited the service to Ukraine.
How PayPal entered Ukraine
The Ministry of Digital Development has repeatedly stated that the priority of its work is to bring global IT companies to Ukraine, including PayPal. The department has been involved in its involvement since its inception in 2019, and in 2020 Fedorov personally met with the management to bring the company to the Ukrainian market. That year, the government even included it in its "program of action", which in the end was never adopted.
PayPal is an international electronic payment system founded in 1998. Now it is one of the world's most common means of payment on the Internet. They can be produced in dollars, euros, pounds, yen, yuan and dozens of other currencies.
PayPal is currently used by 420 million people in over 200 countries.
The story of the company's arrival in Ukraine began long before the appearance of the Ministry of Digital Development. Although PayPal worked nominally in Ukraine, its functionality was very limited. For example, if it was possible to receive funds, then it is no longer possible to withdraw them from the electronic wallet.
Back in 2016, EP wrote how to expand the functionality of the company was hindered by the outdated regulatory framework of the National Bank. At the same time, in 2019, the regulator said that the problems with PayPal entering the Ukrainian market do not belong to the regulatory field of the National Bank, but there are other reasons why this did not happen at that time.
In the end, the war pushed the company to deploy full-fledged work with Ukrainian consumers.
[Source] (In Ukrainian)