NBU obliges banks to make 50% of branches accessible to people with disabilities
Kyiv • UNN
The National Bank of Ukraine requires banks to ensure that 50% of their branches are physically and informationally accessible by January 1, 2025. This will create an inclusive financial space for all citizens, including veterans and people with disabilities.
The National Bank of Ukraine has obliged banks to ensure physical and information accessibility of at least 50% of their separate divisions in the regions by January 1, 2025. Writes UNN with reference to the press service of the NBU.
The National Bank of Ukraine has obliged banks to ensure physical and informational accessibility of at least 50% of their regional branches in order to create an inclusive financial space for all Ukrainian citizens, including war veterans, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
According to the amendments to the Regulation on Bank Licensing, financial institutions must identify such units in accordance with the inclusivity requirements set by the NBU and make them accessible to persons with disabilities by January 1, 2025, and ensure that this requirement is met on an ongoing basis.
Banks are obliged to inform customers about the location of available branches, their contact phone numbers and working hours on the main page of their official website and its mobile version, through mobile applications, customer support services, chatbots, messengers, as well as in public places on the premises.
The physical accessibility of the branches will be ensured in accordance with the state standards for inclusive buildings, and information accessibility will be ensured through the presentation of information on websites and mobile applications in a format that allows people to familiarize themselves with the terms of financial services and use of payment devices.
Barrier-free financial services should become an everyday norm of our lives, as it is our duty to veterans and those who suffered in this war. I am confident that financial institutions will radically revise their services, premises and rules of communication with clients instead of a formal approach to make our financial system the most inclusive in the world. The support of banks for the Charter on Financial Inclusion and Reintegration of Veterans, as well as numerous meetings with banks, add to the confidence that this is our common vision of the future of the country's financial system
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