The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved the application of mobile market leader Kyivstar’s 100% subsidiary StarMoney to establish ‘payment infrastructure services’ for a mobile money service,
Interfax reports. Company president Peter Chernyshov stated that Kyivstar is the first Ukrainian mobile operator to gain such permission, adding that once further NBU approvals for e-money transactions are received, Kyivstar will be ready to launch mobile financial services. He declared in an online post: ‘Soon those who live far from bank branches or do not have a bank account will be able to pay for shopping, utility services and public transport tickets using a regular phone (even a smartphone is not needed for this!). And those who live in cities will easily and quickly pay for a taxi, the delivery of pizza or other goods directly from the mobile application.’