The result of a more coordinated work on the return of funds from failed banks may be an increase in the partial voluntary repayment of debts by former owners, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Kateryna Rozhkova has said.
“What can happen and what we would like – perhaps the owners to some extent will be ready to voluntarily close debts,” she told Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question about the implementation of the paragraph of the Memorandum with the IMF on strengthening work on the return of assets of failed banks.
Rozhkova recalled that a working group was created at the government level, headed by the Prime Minister, which includes the governor of the National Bank and the head of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which is engaged in boosting work on the return of assets.
“In fact, you don’t need to invent anything new, because PrivatBank has already passed a certain path: there are courts in Western jurisdictions, tools for how to do this – through courts in Ukraine or abroad,” the representative of the National Bank said.
Rozhkova said that all the documents that the NBU had, confirming certain abuses, were transferred to law enforcement agencies. According to her, the Deposit Guarantee Fund conducts due diligence with the involvement of audit companies to determine where and how assets were withdrawn for each of the banks, according to the schedule. Further, claims are being prepared, which should be transferred either to courts, or to law enforcement agencies here, or to other jurisdictions.
“I will also say an unpopular thing, but it is true: those banks that left the market have assets that they lost in Donetsk and Crimea [in the occupied territories]. And this was not a withdrawal of funds. There are assets that have ceased to be serviced when the hryvnia sharply devalued. Collaterals depreciated, loans increased. It cannot be said that the entire volume is the fault of shareholders. It is necessary to calculate, prove, divide, and where it is provable, move the traditional way,” Rozhkova said.
As reported, according to a memorandum with the IMF, by the end of December this year, the Prosecutor General’s Office is to publish a semi-annual report on the outcomes of criminal proceedings against former bank owners, managers and other related parties in each resolved bank since the beginning of 2014, with aggregate data on the number of persons investigated, tried, and convicted as well as the amount of fines and damage recovered.
The next benchmark in this area is the publication of a asset recovery strategy paper and an action plan for the return of assets of failed banks by the end of February 2022.
