Marchenko A. V., Mudrenko A. A., Nikolaev T. G.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University, Ukraine

INTERNET-BANKING IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

E-banking is one of the best known and most popular services provided by commercial banks in the world. It renders lots of services to its clients. Nowadays, the number of the system users is more than one billion people. In fact, everybody who has an access to the Internet can join this system. It is the evidence of efficiency, potency, convenience and comfort that e-banking can give us.

The service has both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is definitely, time and money saving. Clients don’t waste time walking to the bank, queuing and they do not pay for bank cash services and are not charged with additional fees. People can pay via the Internet easily and quickly. And it can be done from any place in the world 24 hours a day. They can get bank statements whenever they wish. It makes stealing money from bank accounts more complicated. Any person can become a client of any bank even without leaving home.

But there are some serious disadvantages which influence greatly the work of the system and can even lead to the system failure. Clients can face such problems as poor Internet skills, low income, etc. Some people are just not willing to learn to use the service. Also many people realise that they can lose money and they don’t want to take a risk. And there are some other problems as well.

First of all, these are the problems of security and system renewing and updating. Banks have to invest money in software, hardware and other computer equipment. Quantity of necessary equipment is usually calculated on the bases of the number of banks’ clients per day and additional reserved servers. In rush periods, when lots of people take money from banks, servers can fail and databases can be lost. It is a great loss for banks. For example, in Ukraine we faced such a situation in February, when thousands of Ukrainians began to withdraw money from their accounts, it became a disaster for the banking and economic systems of Ukraine. Besides there are not any laws regulating the banking system in Ukraine and banks work on the bases of bilateral agreements, signed by a banker and a client, while in many countries they work on the basis of the electronic signature and electronic documents.

On the territory of Ukraine such banks as Raiffeisen Bank Aval, Prominvestbank, Radabank, Ukrsotsbank, Finansy i Kredit, Ukrgasbank, UkrSibBank, Real Bank use «iBank 2 UA» system. Privatbank has its own system. The difference between «iBank 2 UA» and Privatbank’s one is that «iBank 2 UA» is predominantly used to support corporative clients and Privatbank’s system supports individuals. The work of banks is focused on their own market segments. They create circumstances for the most profitable and comfortable use of their systems.

Now e-banking is not compulsory, but it is necessary for bank competitiveness in the market. According to GFK the number of Internet banking users increased by 35 % in 2013. On average, 10–15 % of bank clients use the Internet, but in leading banks the number is about 25–35 %. According to «Investgazeta» Deltabank, PUMB, Raiffazen bank Aval are among the top-thirty banks in Ukraine. But the leader is definitely Privatbank. It is very difficult to compete with this bank in terms of comfort and functionality, as it invests a lot of money in e-banking. In 2013 Deltabank became a new trend with its innovations in options and services. Deltabank was the first in Ukraine to start online-credit on Internet-shops sites. You can get this credit online, and you need not go the bank to sign the papers.

It is considered that development of e-banking has a positive influence on the development of the Ukrainian economy. It helps the state to control money circulation. It is very profitable for the government, but the great majority of Ukrainians think that it contradicts the interests of ordinary people. But many citizens prefer comfort and they believe that their money is safe when it is kept on bank accounts.