Ukraine’s Largest Bank Helps Integrate Bitcoin as a Payment
PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank by assets is now offering online retailers the ability to receive Bitcoin as a payment before directly converting it into fiat currency that is deposited into the merchant’s account, as reported by PSM7.
Upon the completion of its testing, PrivatBank is now offering online retailers the means to obtain a settlement in Bitcoin. The announcement was made by Christina Karmazin, head of E-Commerce at PrivatBank at a conference in Kiev, Ukraine today.
Ukrainian online publication Payspace Magazine, reported the news that was revealed at the “Cross-border E-Commerce: The Import to Ukraine,” conference.
Essentially, buyers can pay in Bitcoin while merchants will receive the payment in Hryvnias (Ukraine’s national currency) or Euros.
Elaborating on the new feature, Karmazin stated:
We have already completed the testing service and traders are now looking for partners who are willing to integrate [receiving] Bitcoins in their checkout page. [Also], we [are focusing] not only within the Ukrainian market but also the European market.
The check-out process is one similar to most online shoppers. Buyers can choose Bitcoin as the payment method when arriving at the checkout page. Upon scanning the QR-Code, the bitcoin transaction is initiated. To round up the process, PrivatBank will guage the current exchange rate in Hryvnias or Euros – depending on the specified currency – before converting the cryptocurrency to fiat money.
Also read: Turmoil in Ukraine Shows Bitcoin’s Potential as a Global Currency
Christina was also asked about the controversy surrounding Bitcoin- and cryptocurrency-regulation in the country. She confirmed PrivatBank has filed an application with the National Bank of Ukraine.
Bitcoin is slowly being adopted within Ukraine and CCN.com recently investigated a report of widespread installations of ATMs in the country. You can read all about that here.
PrivatBank was not immediately available for a comment at the time of publishing.
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