Insurance companies of Ukraine in 2020 paid profit tax to the state and local budgets in the amount of UAH 1.674 billion, which is UAH 334 million (24.5%) more than in the same period in 2019, and 51, 5% more than in 2018, Oleksandr Zaletov, the vice president of the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine (LIOU), has said.
According to him, as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant trend in 2020 was the revision of business strategies for almost all insurance companies without exception. The drop in sales for a number of types of insurance (Green Card, tourism, KASKO) encouraged insurers and insurance intermediaries to digitalize. To one degree or another, distance sales and settlement using Internet technologies have become the main strategic objectives of the digitalization of the Ukrainian insurance market. In fact, an indicator of the competitiveness and investment attractiveness of the insurer was the ability to remotely conclude or renegotiate an insurance contract, amend it, and provide documents to the insurer confirming the insured event.
According to Zaletov, unfortunately, the legal framework and technologies for remote servicing of insurance companies’ clients lag significantly behind the needs and need further reform. In addition, on the way of increasing the customer focus of insurers, the tasks of improving the legislative regulation of issues aimed at protecting the rights of consumers of insurance services and countering their discrimination in the field of insurance are of particular importance. In this regard, it should be noted that basing an insurance rate on a characteristic that cannot be changed is contrary to the ideals of the EU and fairness.
“The terms of insurance contracts must not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory, for example, direct or indirect restriction of citizens’ rights on the basis of race, color, political, religious and other beliefs, gender, age, health status, disability, ethnic and social origin, property status, residence, linguistic or other characteristics,” he said.
According to Zaletov, other representatives of non-banking financial markets, primarily financial companies, lessors and pawnshops, are also steadily increasing tax payments. So in 2020 they paid profit tax in the amount of UAH 604 million to the state and local budgets, which is UAH 196 million (47.1%) more than in the same period of 2019, and 149.6% more than for 2018.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal says that Ukraine wants Ukrainian business to have more access to European markets, and negotiations will allow increasing the volume of trade quotas.
“We are talking about the further liberalization of trade between Ukraine and the EU. This will help increase our mutual trade and further convergence of economies … We want Ukrainian business to have more access to European markets, and hope that our negotiations will allow increasing the volume of quotas provided for our agreement with the EU,” Shmyhal said at a joint briefing with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis in Brussels.
Shmyhal stressed that Ukraine intends to use 2021 for solid work, the result of which should be an actual approximation to EU standards.
Windrose (Kyiv) from February 14, 2021 will open a regular cargo flight between Kyiv and Hong Kong.
According to the company’s press service on Tuesday, from February 14 to December 27, 2021, cargo flights on the Kyiv-Hong Kong-Kyiv route will be performed on Sundays from Kyiv to Hong Kong and on Mondays back.
“Windrose Airlines hopes that the opening of this program will help all market participants to accelerate the delivery of cargo both from Hong Kong to Kyiv and subsequently from Kyiv to Hong Kong,” the company said.
The flights will be operated by Airbus A330-200 P2F aircraft, which has been modified for cargo transportation.
As reported, in November 2020, Windrose signed a wet leasing contract for Airbus A330 aircraft to perform cargo flights from Kyiv to New York and Hong Kong.
Polish Getin Holding S.A. (Wroclaw) on February 5 signed an agreement with a Ukrainian buyer for the sale of 100% of the shares of subsidiary Idea Bank (Lviv) and 100% of the shares of New Finance Service (Kyiv), Getin Holding S.A. has said.
According to a report on biznes.pap.pl, the parties plan to close the potential deal by September 30, 2021.
Before that the buyer will conduct due diligence the companies, and after a positive result of the due diligence the parties will proceed to agree on the terms of the potential transaction.
Getin Holding also reports that the company granted the buyer exclusive rights for negotiations until April 30, 2021.
Idea Bank (formerly Plus Bank) was founded in 1989. As of January 1, 2020, its sole shareholder was the financial group Getin Holding S.A. (Poland).
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2020, Idea Bank ranked 24th among 74 operating banks in terms of total assets (UAH 8.057 billion).
Transportation of grain by river in Ukraine in 2020 decreased by 27.3% compared to 2019, to 3.5 million tonnes, which is associated with a decrease in the harvest by 13%, to 65.4 million tonnes, a rise in the rail fleet of grain carriers and increased competition among road carriers, Andriy Muravsky, an expert in the river transportation industry, says.
In a review of the industry on Facebook, he pointed out that total shipments by river fleet last year decreased by 5.1% compared to 2019, to 11.8 million tonnes, and the decline in the transportation of grain and fertilizers was partially offset by an increase in construction cargo (more by 12.5%, to 5.8 million tonnes) and metallurgical products (more by 7%).
At the same time, fertilizers continue to enter river ports directly from Bulgaria or Georgia in the holds of river-sea class vessels, and their shipment is carried out to the berths of estuarine ports and to terminals up the Dnipro River, Muravsky said.
According to him, in 2020, competition intensified in offshore transshipment, for example, Nibulon operated the largest floating crane in Ukraine Nibulon Max for a full year. This reloader was launched in the spring of 2019 and allowed Nibulon to increase the volume of cargo transshipment by its own fleet to 4-5 million tonnes per year, the expert said. According to him, other shipping companies plan to purchase their own floating cranes to offer integrated logistics.
Muravsky also said that United Barge Company (UBC) in 2020, for the first time in Ukraine, carried out a ship-to-ship operation to reload sunflower oil from a barge to a sea tanker on the outer roadstead of Mykolaiv port, thereby reducing the freight costs of the entire vessel and was able to avoid calling to another port. Also, UBC for the first time in Ukraine fully loaded a sea tanker with oil from barges without using land terminals, the expert noted.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has raised the e-limit of investments abroad for individuals from EUR 100,000 to EUR 200,000 per year, the press service of the regulator has said.
The corresponding changes were approved by the decree of the NBU board of February 3, 2021 (No. 14), which was posted on the National Bank’s website and comes into force on February 5.
The report specifies that the e-limit has been increased for investments abroad, placing funds on their own foreign accounts, transferring funds under a life insurance contract and providing loans to non-residents.
“This decision in the direction of currency liberalization will not have a significant impact on the functioning of the currency market of Ukraine, including taking into account the fact that individuals have been able to buy non-cash foreign currency for more than a year without any obligations and grounds,” the press service said citing Deputy Governor of the NBU Yurii Heletii.
He noted that in 2020, individuals within the e-limit transferred about EUR274 million abroad, which is less than the average daily trading volume in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The NBU recalled that the complete removal of the e-limit for individuals to make investments abroad is one of the priorities of the National Bank, provided for by the roadmap of currency liberalization. At the same time, the regulator indicated that this will become possible only after the final adoption and implementation of a package of bills to counter BEPS (base erosion and profitshifting).
As reported, since December 18, 2019, the National Bank has increased the annual e-limit on individual foreign exchange transactions by individuals from EUR 50,000 to EUR 100,000 per year.
