Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine
Thu, December 22, 2005
KYIV – The National Bank of Ukraine does not intend to wait for a decision by the parliament and intends to issue its own document allowing foreign banks to open affiliates in Ukraine. Vasyl Pasichnyk, the director of the bank’s legal department, announced this to journalists.
“We will regulate the terms of such access. We will issue instructions on the conditions for the access of affiliates,” he said.
Pasichnyk added that the law entitled “On Banks and Banking Operations” authorizes the NBU to regulate the access of foreign capital to Ukraine.
According to him, the active legislation does not prohibit foreign banks from opening affiliates in Ukraine but there is no mechanism regulating their access to the Ukrainian market.
Pasichnyk added that NBU intends to apply several principles stipulated in the relevant draft law that it drafted but was rejected by the parliament when drafting the instructions on the terms of access of foreign banks’ affiliates to the Ukrainian market.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the parliament refused again in mid-November to allow foreign banks to open affiliates in Ukraine.
The second reading of the draft law No. 7274 entitled “On Amendments to the Law on Banks and Banking Operations (regarding affiliates of foreign banks)” received only 183 votes in the parliament instead of the minimum 226 votes required for its approval.
The draft law proposed the following restrictions on the opening of affiliates by foreign banks: the regulatory capital of the foreign bank should amount to at least EUR 150 million, the minimum size of the foreign bank’s capital should be EUR 5 million, Ukrainian banks should have the right to open affiliates in the country in which the foreign bank was founded, and the country should not be on the list of countries failing to cooperate with the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). -30-
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