PrivatBank threatens monobank with legal action over banking confidentiality allegations

Oleh Gorokhovsky, co-owner of the virtual monobank, accused state-owned PrivatBank (Kyiv) of disclosing clients' banking information during the process of opening cards under the government's National Cashback program. PrivatBank has denied these allegations and hinted at possible legal action to defend its reputation.

"If you opened a National Cashback card at PrivatBank, you might want to check what you agreed to… Show this to others. It's not too late to fix it – no other banks do this," Gorokhovsky wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, attaching an excerpt from the agreement.

In response, PrivatBank stated that the agreement was drafted based on government resolution No. 952, which regulates the cashback initiative. The resolution requires clients to authorize the transfer of information about payment transactions from specified accounts to enable reimbursements for purchasing domestic goods. The bank argued that Gorokhovsky had misrepresented the conditions of the National Cashback initiative, an important state program.

"We assure you, our bank operates strictly within the legal framework. The data transferred is used solely for calculating and providing cashback," PrivatBank said.

The state-owned bank emphasized that current legislation mandates written consent from each user for disclosing banking information before opening an account for the cashback program. Furthermore, PrivatBank, like all participants in the program, only transfers data related to transaction amounts spent or refunded at stores registered as sellers of Ukrainian goods.

"The bank reserves the right to seek recourse through competent authorities to protect its business reputation," PrivatBank stated.

Gorokhovsky, in turn, responded, "PrivatBank… threatened me with a lawsuit for reading their agreement."

As previously reported, on October 11, the Ministry of Economy concluded beta testing of the National Cashback program and decided to launch a national advertising campaign for it.

The maximum monthly cashback is UAH 3,000, which can be spent by the 20th of the following month on healthcare, utilities, sports, cinema tickets, donations to the Armed Forces, or purchasing war bonds.

By late November, citizens had opened 4.6 million cards under the program, which involves 15 banks, including PrivatBank, monobank, Ukrgasbank, Sense Bank, FUIB, A-Bank, Bank Globus, UkrSibbank BNP Paribas Group, Oschadbank, Accordbank, Bank Credit Dnipro, Pravex Bank, Clearing House, Radabank, and Raiffeisen.