The National Bank of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of the new law “On Payment Services” has included Ukrposhta, NovaPay and six other companies in the payment infrastructure register and issued eight more licenses to provide financial payment services.
According to a statement from the NBU on Friday evening, they also included FC MBK LLC, Diamond Pay, United Space FC, Finexpress FC, Capital Business Group and Payment Center FC.
Such decisions were taken by the Committee on the supervision and regulation of non-banking financial services markets on April 27 and 28, 2023.
The National Bank reminded that the law “On Payment Services” was introduced on August 1, 2022. According to the law, the financial market participants licensed to transfer funds in national currency without opening accounts may apply to the National Bank of Ukraine till April 30, 2023 inclusive, in order to “re-register” their license as required by the law.
According to the NBU, the payment infrastructure register currently includes BOT and 83 other companies and organizations.
Ukrainian research icebreaker “Noosphere” on Saturday, April 29, arrived from the Antarctic to Cape Town (South Africa), completing the second Antarctic season, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine reports.
“From the icy continent to the “big land” the icebreaker brought 3 expeditions: the wintering team of the 27th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition, whose participants and participants worked at our station “Academician Vernadsky” during the year. These are scientists in geophysics, biology, meteorology, as well as the life support team; the seasonal detachment, which performed the task at Vernadsky during the Antarctic summer. These are scientists and technicians, participants in the Polish Antarctic expedition from the station “Artcovsky”, – is indicated in a message in Telegram-channel.
In total, the second season of “Noosphere” lasted 4 months and consisted of 2 parts.
The number of outlets of Ukrainian banks in the first quarter of 2023 decreased by 2.7%, or by 147, to 5.192 thousand, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to it, in January-March this year, most of all outlets closed Raiffeisen Bank – 27 and A-Bank – 10, then in their networks were 323 and 205 outlets, respectively.
Ukrbudinvestbank reduced the number of outlets by 6 – to 44, Sense Bank and FUIB – by 5, to 138 and 221, respectively, and Ukrsibbank – by 3, to 230.
Among the smaller banks the largest decrease of the network was registered in the bank “Clearing House” – from 5 to 3 branches, Evroprombank – from 6 to 5, and in the bank “Concorde” – from 14 to 12.
Taskombank opened the most number of outlets in the first quarter of this year – 3, increasing their number to 93.
Kredobank and Cominbank added 2 branches to their networks, increasing their number to 67 and 52 correspondingly.
On the whole, the pace of reduction in the number of bank branches in the first quarter of this year slowed down to 2.7%, as in the fourth quarter of the previous year it was 3.3%, in the third – 7.9% and in the second – 8.1%.
This is largely due to the fact that state banks have probably heeded the call of the National Bank, which in February this year suggested that the Finance Ministry, as the owner of state banks, introduce a moratorium on reducing their branch network during the war.
Over the past year, it was reduced in Oshchadbank by 420 business units – to 1.182 thousand, PrivatBank – by 287, to 1.21 thousand, Ukrgazbank – by 51, to 217, and Ukreximbank – by 5, to 48. In the first quarter of this year, Oshchadbank even opened one branch, while PrivatBank closed only one.
According to the NBU, as of April 1 this year in Ukraine, the largest branch networks owned by PrivatBank – 1209, Oschadbank – 1183, Raiffeisen Bank – 323, Ukrsibbank – 230, FUIB – 221, Ukrgasbank – 217, A-Bank – 205, Accordbank – 143, Credit Agricole Bank – 141 and Sense Bank – 138.
State banks at the beginning of April 2023 accounted for 51.2% of all bank branches in Ukraine, which corresponds to the situation before the war, although at the end of last year their share decreased slightly – to 49.8%.
As earlier reported, the number of structural subdivisions of Ukrainian banks in 2022 decreased by 20.2%, or by 1,349 branches, to 5.336 thousand.
PJSC Promarmatura (Dnipro) finished the year 2022 with a net loss of UAH 29.995 mln, while in 2021 it received a net profit of UAH 13.212 mln.
According to the company’s annual report, its net profit dropped 23.6% last year, to 154.645 mln hryvnia.
The retained profit of the company at the end of the last year amounted to UAH 119.213 mln.
The company “Promarmatura” was founded in December 1994 and works at the market of pipeline valves.
According to the NDE as of the end of 2022, two individuals – Ukrainian citizens Igor Mezhebovsky and Alexander Chelyadin – own 50% of the company.
The charter capital of the company is UAH 7.218 mln.
The Czech Republic intends to open its consulate general in Dnipro, Czech President Petr Pavel said.
“We seek to strengthen our presence and deepen cooperation in Ukraine. To this end, we will delegate two persons who will work in Dnipro. We will open a consulate general there,” he said Friday at a joint press conference with the presidents of Ukraine and Slovakia in Kiev.
In particular, the work of the consulate will be connected with facilitation of projects of mutual cooperation of the Czech Republic in energy, economy, transport and housing in the reconstruction of Dnipropetrovsk region.
The timing of the opening was not reported.
Ukraine’s state budget on Friday received another tranche of $1.25 billion in grant funds from the United States.
“Funding was provided through the World Bank Trust Fund as part of the fourth additional funding for the Supporting Public Expenditures for Sustainable Governance in Ukraine (PEACE) Project,” the Finance Ministry pointed out.
He specified that Ukraine has already received about $16.7 billion in grants from the U.S. since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The partnership with the U.S. and the World Bank team during the war allows the Ukrainian government to fund priority social expenditures in full. At the same time, aid in the form of grants does not increase the debt burden and helps stabilize the financial system,” said Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.
As reported, the external financing needs of the state budget of Ukraine in 2023 is more than $ 42 billion.
Since the beginning of this year, by April 26, according to the Ministry of Finance, funding from international partners has already reached $15.285 billion, compared to $32.144 billion for the whole of last year. That includes $3.5 billion in grants from the U.S. this year. The EU, with $6.501 billion, the IMF, with $2.706 billion, and Canada, with $1.757 billion, have also already provided large loans.
Domestic financing from government bonds this year amounted to $4.839 billion.
