No abstract

The pandemic and wartime in Ukraine confirmed the importance of cashless payments for financial stability. The purpose of the paper is to examine the effect of technological infrastructure and financial access factors on cashless economy development. The impact of the infrastructure factor is assessed in case of Ukraine, using NBU’s data on payment infrastructure during 2001–2022. The hypothesis of the boosting effect of financial access towards a cashless economy has been tested using the method of correlation between M0/M3 and different indicators of financial access (usage of essential technologies, financial services) based on data of World Bank, IMF, and Triple-A in 2021. The study’s results show that globally there is an almost linear relationship between the number of open financial accounts and the increase in the level of cashless (0.954). It is also revealed that the rise of the share of the population making electronic payments decreases the share of cash in the economy. It is determined that the spread of the crypto-assets has a significant impact on the reduction of cash in the economy (an increase in the share of the population operating with cryptocurrencies by 1% reduces the share of cash by 0.5%). Regarding regulatory policies, it is proposed to stimulate the coverage of the population with open financial accounts, making mandatory payments with electronic payment systems and developing their infrastructure.

The article analyzes the structure of Ukraine’s external debt liabilities for the period from 2011 to 2021 and in the period since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. It is determined that the amount of state external liabilities, taking into account projected data, may exceed 70% of this country’s GDP, which will become the dominant form of both attracting financial resources to the state budget and threatening the state security. The authors provide an assessment of the difficulties of restructuring the external debt in terms of the specific weight of the creditor and the weight of short-term payments for the period 2022-2023. It is concluded that at the beginning of 2022, the largest specific weight in the structure of external liabilities was the debt for issued securities for foreign markets and liabilities to international financial organizations and the EU. The main payments for them fall on the third quarters of 2022 and 2023 (3.0 and 3.6 billion USD, respectively), and the payment of interest accounts for 30% of total. The article considers possible mechanisms of write-off and restructuring of the state's external debts, taking into account international experience and with regard to the crises and military conflicts. The following mechanisms for write-off and restructuring of foreign debt are analyzed: Brady Plan for debt restructuring of developing countries; and debt relief programs for the poorest countries - HIPC (heavily indebted poor countries) and MDRI (The Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative). The authors identify the guidelines of work on minimizing Ukraine's external liabilities in 2022-2023. A conclusion is made regarding the initiation of negotiations on the restructuring and write-off of the external debt burden to ease the payments on external debts, including GDP warrants. Such a task should be carried out as soon as possible before the period of the largest payments and taking into account the existing support of the governments of leading foreign countries.

The article defines the concept of fintech as an innovative industry and as a financial product. The processes and possibilities of using innovative technologies, in particular blockchain, artificial intelligence, Big Data, cloud technologies, artificial neural networks, and machine learning technologies for the financial services industry are generalized. The author notes the promise of the application of such innovative technologies for the expansion of crediting, reduction of credit, investment and other risks, personalization of financial offers for the client, trading, money transfers, insurance business, etc. The world investments in fintech in the period from 2013 to 2019 are analyzed. The author points out the increase in total investment and average value of one transaction over the past two years. Analyzed the application of fintech for local markets and in various areas of the financial services industry, in particular investments in InsurTech. The author shows the opportunities of the introduction of fintech in the regional section. It is concluded that the coverage of the population with fintech services is higher in the countries where the market of traditional financial services is less developed. Countries with developed financial markets have a conservative approach and a certain lag in the introduction of financial technologies. At the same time, the author points out a high level of concentration of investments in developed markets. It is concluded that digitalization in the financial and other sectors in Ukraine is promising; in particular, it concerns non-cash payments of insurance companies, remittances and services related to RegTech. Highlighted the priorities for fintech in Ukraine in terms of improving digital literacy, cash economy, and development of fintech ecosystems. The positive and negative effects of the introduction of fintech are considered. It is emphasized that the problems that need to be addressed relate to the risks associated with personal security, privacy, loss of personal data, cybersecurity, job cuts, and various other aspects.

In the article have been described main features of commercial banks politics in the field of deposit and credit services for the physical persons during the current financial crisis. There are considered reasons of declining people trust to the banks and tendency to change bank politics according to act of intensifying crisis of trust and credit resources shortage. Researched problems of reactivation commercial banks credit activity in modern economic conditions.