- National Bank of Ukraine taken to court over claims that it illegally took away licenses
- The plaintiff, TYME, is a non-bank international payment provider
- Decisions of Bank “are not within the legal framework and are criminal in nature”, TYME claims
A major bank in the Eastern European country of Ukraine has been hit with a lawsuit after an international payment service objected to one of its decisions.
The National Bank of Ukraine is believed to have rescinded the permissions and licenses of the TYME payment system – a move which TYME claims was illegal.
The National Bank was believed to have made its choice due to information it received from the SBU, which is Ukraine’s security service.
However, TYME alleges that this decision was illegal – and that the Bank, along with its governor Yakiv Smolii, has acted outside of the law.
TYME is looking to have the decision overturned as part of its lawsuit.
The decision to rescind the licenses was made on June 14th. Following this, TYME asked the regulator and security services to provide documents as evidence, but neither organisation is believed to have released them.
TYME is, or was, unique within Ukraine for being the only international payment service which wasn’t a bank, and it is believed to have been used by many to transfer money internationally.
Over the course of the last year, TYME has built a good reputation and performed well in money transfer comparison tables. It was even designated as what industry press have described as a “socially important payment system” as recently as this year.
Now, its future looks in doubt.
In a statement, TYME said it believed that "the actions of the SBU and the NBU, represented by Yakiv Smolii, are not within the legal framework and are criminal in nature”.
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