NBU finalizes draft law to submit application for equivalence in EU banking regulation
The National Bank of Ukraine is finalizing a bill, which it has been working on with consultants with the technical assistance of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to obtain equivalence with European standards in the field of access to professional secrecy and confidentiality, said Serhiy Nikolaychuk, First Deputy Governor of the NBU.
"Around September, we expect it to be processed by the European Banking Authority (EBA), the banking supervisory authority of the European Union. When this happens, we will be able to submit this draft law to the parliament. After the law is adopted, we can count on obtaining equivalence status in the field of banking professional secrecy and confidentiality," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Nikolaychuk explained that this will allow applying for equivalence in banking regulation, where currently, according to consultants, Ukraine has a level of regulatory equivalence of about 77%.
The banker emphasized that obtaining equivalence in banking regulation will allow parent companies of banks with foreign capital in their consolidated reporting to significantly reduce the credit risk that they currently assign to Ukrainian government securities that their "subsidiaries" purchase.
"This will open up additional opportunities for Ukrainian banks with foreign capital to increase their active operations," he noted.
Speaking about European integration, Nikolaychuk also reported that the regulator has almost completed bilateral meetings with the European Commission and has actively participated in the preparation of Ukraine's negotiating positions on the first, second and sixth negotiation clusters.
"We were very much looking forward to the opening of these clusters for negotiations, but unfortunately, due to the position of individual members of the European Union, this has not happened yet. We hope that in the near future, during the Danish presidency, we will still have the opportunity to open these clusters for negotiations. We are concentrating on this," said the banker.
According to him, the National Bank is also completing the preparation of a negotiating position on the third cluster, which covers Chapter 17 "Economic and Monetary Policy". It pays significant attention to the analysis of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation, in particular the law on the National Bank, with European standards.
"Now we can talk about the need to make some changes to the law on the NBU. In my opinion, they will not so much actually, but legally strengthen the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine and our compliance with European standards," he noted.