On November 27, CS held a webinar together with its international partner Salt Edge, during which they examined in detail the practical aspects of implementing Open Banking. The event brought together representatives from Ukrainian financial institutions seeking to understand how to prepare for the new NBU regulatory requirements effectively.
Regulatory Requirements and Implementation Timeline
The National Bank of Ukraine has established clear deadlines: by early 2026, all banks must launch Open Banking functionality. This means providing API access to third parties for the provisioning of both Account Information Services and Payment Initiation Services. Additionally, banks must implement Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), and ensure secure interaction with licensed TPPs (Third-Party Providers).
The regulator has granted banks a grace period until mid-2026, during which no penalties will be applied. However, even with this extension, time for quality preparation is limited, as Open Banking implementation requires careful planning, technical integration, and involvement of specialised expertise.
Webinar Participants
The webinar was delivered by Andrei Scutari (Head of Sales – Open Banking Compliance) and Dan Martalog (Senior Open Banking Solution Expert), who presented Salt Edge’s experience in implementing Open Banking in European markets. On the CS side, the webinar was moderated by Head of Key Client Support Department Vladimir Olefir, who presented the company’s vision for Open Banking implementation and shared project implementation experience.
Since 2013, Salt Edge has been delivering Open Banking solutions, with experience across more than 50 countries.
CS and Salt Edge already have a successful common implementation in one Moldovan bank, where Salt Edge provides its Open Banking Compliance solution, while CS has provided an Open Banking Worker, enabling the integration between CBS B2 and Salt Edge’s platform.
Capitalising on this prior experience, Ukrainian banks can achieve compliance faster and more efficiently.
Key Aspects of Open Banking Implementation
During the webinar, the Salt Edge team examined the challenges banks face when implementing Open Banking.
Creating a full-fledged Open Banking Compliance solution involves much more than simply developing technical interfaces. In practice, banks must ensure TPP certificate verification, consent management, regulatory reporting, support for dozens of third -party providers, and continuous updates in response to regulatory changes, all in parallel with their core operations.
Salt Edge’s solution, by way of alternative, covers all regulatory requirements out of the box. For banks, it includes a dedicated dashboard for API monitoring, TPP management, role management, regulatory reporting tools, consent management, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). In addition, third parties are supported through a dedicated developer portal with technical documentation, a testing environment (sandbox), and managed technical support.
The technical integration with CBS B2 is performed through the CS Open Banking Worker and a connector, a translation layer between the worker and Salt Edge’s Open Banking Compliance platform. The bank may choose to develop the connector independently, with the support of an implementation partner, or delegate this task entirely to CS and Salt Edge.
Business Opportunities of Open Banking
Open Banking creates not only regulatory obligations but also new opportunities for monetisation.
In e-commerce today, online stores pay approximately 2% commission for accepting card payments. When using Open Banking payments (when money goes directly from account to account, bypassing card systems), commissions can decrease by 3-5 times, money arrives instantly, and the customer gets a better price. For large online retailers, this means millions in savings annually.
The speakers also discussed opportunities beyond regulatory compliance, highlighting how banks can use premium APIs to support additional use cases on top of mandatory Open Banking APIs. For example, corporate clients can benefit as companies with accounts across multiple banks are able to integrate them into their ERP systems, automate bulk payments, and receive aggregated reporting. Banks, in turn, can monetise these premium APIs, creating additional revenue streams.
Implementation process and timeline
Thanks to the partnership between CS and Salt Edge, and prior integration experience, the implementation timeline is significantly shorter than that of an in-house solution.
The implementation process includes gathering technical requirements, setting up a test environment, connector development, testing, and deployment to the production environment. After launch, ongoing support and adaptation to regulatory changes are provided.
For questions about Open Banking implementation or to receive detailed consultation regarding NBU compliance, contact the CS team. We are ready to present a personalised solution, discuss the technical details of the CBS B2 integration, and develop an individual implementation plan.
About Salt Edge
Salt Edge is a financial API platform with PSD2 and open banking solutions for every business. The company has two main vectors of activity: enabling third parties to get access to bank channels via a unified gateway and developing the technology necessary for banks to become compliant with the directive’s requirements. ISO 27001 certified and AISP licensed under PSD2, the company employs the highest international security measures to ensure stable and reliable connections between financial institutions and their customers. The company is integrated with 5,000+ financial institutions in 50+ countries. Salt Edge has been named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Open Banking Intermediaries, 2023 Report.
For more information, please visit www.saltedge.com
