Ernst & Young is waiting for a spike in proposals to insure cybersecurity risks in Ukraine in 2019, according to a study by Ernst & Young Global Limited posted by the Ukrainian representative office of the company.
“The high level of damage to business from cybercrime around the world encourages companies to look for ways to manage these risks from the outside. One of the available options is to insure cyber risks, so similar offers from insurance companies are the expected trend of 2019 in Ukraine,” Senior Manager of information technology and IT risk management department of EY in Ukraine Dmytro Lazuchenkov said.
According to EY Global Information Security Survey 2018–2019, Ukrainian businesses are still characterized by the active migration of large Enterprise IT solutions to cloud services and the performance of business-critical operations in public “clouds.”
In a highly competitive environment, cloud solution providers are trying to reduce costs by reducing investment in technical tools and staff skills that are necessary to ensure the security of a cloud solution. This leads to the fact that cloud environments are becoming more susceptible to attacks by cybercriminals,” the company said in a press release.
EY said that the state-run institutions of Ukraine also should not forget about countering cyber threats.
According to EY Global Information Security Survey 2018-2019, vulnerabilities with the most increased risk exposure over the past 12 months were careless/unaware employees (34%), Outdated security controls (26%), unauthorized access (13%), and related to cloud-computing use (10%).
Most organizations (82%) are not sure if they successfully identify cybersecurity incidents. Among organizations suffered from incidents over the past 12 months, less than one third (31%) say that the incident was revealed by the cybersecurity service of the company.
EY said that 60% of organizations say that the person directly responsible for information security is not a board member. Only 18% of organizations say that information security fully influences business strategy plans on a regular basis.
Ukraine could start creating minimum crude oil and fuel stocks by the end of 2019, Head of the State Reserve Agency Vadym Mosiychuk has said.
“Earlier we have received a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the approval of the concept of minimum reserves of crude oil and petroleum products approved by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The next step would be to approve by the profile authorities and submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers. This opens the way for the Verkhovna Rada to adopt the bill on minimum stocks of crude oil and petroleum products as soon as possible and will allow, under the best scenario, to begin work on the accumulation already at the end of 2019,” the press service said, quoting the words of the head of department.
The State Reserve also said that they have begun a point modernization of the oil infrastructure, and after adopting the model for minimum reserves of crude oil and petroleum products they will negotiate with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) about a loan for large-scale modernization.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) gives an opportunity to open accounts to new non-resident entities on the financial market of Ukraine, including foreign investment foundations and asset managers acting on behalf of such investment foundations, reads a posting on the NBU website.
The right to open accounts in Ukrainian financial institutions and carry out forex transactions through them by non-resident legal entities is ensured by the law of Ukraine on currency and currency operations and the law amending some laws of Ukraine on investment promotion, as well as the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
The NBU has updated the instruction on the procedure of opening and closing customer accounts in banks and correspondent accounts in banks for residents and non-residents.
The central bank’s board approved the new version of the document by instruction No. 56 amending some laws and regulations of the National Bank of Ukraine on April 1, 2019. The document was posted on the website of the NBU and came into effect on April 4, 2019.
The instruction regulates the procedure of opening and closing by banks of:
– client accounts of residents and non-residents (individuals and legal entities);
– correspondent accounts of residents and non-residents;
– accounts of international financial institutions and their managers under trust agreement.
The NBU said that the facilitation of the procedure of opening client accounts envisaged by the instruction will have a good effect on the business climate in Ukraine due to the cancellation of the requirement to provide samples of signatures by clients when opening bank accounts. From now on account management will be performed on grounds of the list of entitled persons without notarial certification. In addition, change of name of a legal entity will not entail closing of active accounts.
The average price on the primary housing market in Kyiv in January-March 2019 grew by 4% or $50, reaching $1,252 per square meter, the press service of City One Development (Kyiv), referring to the results of the monitoring of its analytical department. The press service said that at the same time, the average price at the start of sales increased 10% compared to last year, to $1,023 per square meter.
According to monitoring, in the first quarter, business and comfort projects entered the market. The company also notes a tendency to reposition of projects of the economy and economy plus classes into comfort. However this is not always accompanied by an improvement in the quality of the project.
According to City One Development, since the beginning of the year, sales began in 16 new projects with a declared volume of about 9,500 apartments, while in 2018, some 10-12 new residential complexes entered the market every quarter.
At the same time, InCo home (Invest-Consulting AMC LLC), a member of the Kovalska industrial and construction group (both based in Kyiv), in the first quarter of this year, saw a decrease in sales by 30% compared to the same period 2018, analyzing sales for 11 new residential complexes, in the construction of which the company has invested.
According to experts from both companies, the hryvnia strengthening has influenced the real estate market at the beginning of the year. At the same time, InCo home said that the presidential election did not significantly affect the market.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine represents over 600 Member Companies and affiliated parties – the biggest investors and largest multinationals operating in Ukraine which contribute greatly to the state budget and create new jobs. In March 2019 the following companies joined the AmCham family:
Luxoft Ukraine
Luxoft Ukraine is a leading IT service provider of innovative technology solutions that delivers measurable business outcomes to multinational companies in the automotive, financial, energy, telecom, and technology sectors.
Oleksandra Alkhimovych, Managing Director:
“We are glad to be a part of an internationally oriented business community such as the Chamber. Uniting its members, it serves as a positive driver of change in the business environment and is a trustworthy platform for dialogue with the Government to discuss and promote the prosperity of Ukraine.”
Air Force LLC
The AIRFORCE has experience in the areas of construction of compressor stations and cooling systems for turn-key reversible cycles – from design, selection of equipment, performance of design supervision to commissioning.
Mihails Sorokins, General Director:
“We are pleased to join the Chamber. As a longstanding partner – supplier of equipment of American companies such as SPX Cooling Technologies (cooling towers, cooling systems), FS-Elliott (centrifugal compressors), we hope that cooperation with the Chamber will help to expand our business and give more inspiration to create major significant projects of modernization of industrial enterprises and nuclear energy.”
EU-Trans
EU-Trans has been operating on the international rail market since 1998 and is the owner of 248 rail cars. For more than 20 years our company provides services for organization of rail transports.
Ievgen Balashov, General Manager:
“Membership in the AmCham Ukraine offers us opportunity to keep on top of important, ever-changing issues and trends within rail transport reform in our country. Through the membership we’d like to increase our visibility in the community, share our position on the discussion panel, stay in contact with politicians, officials, business leaders.”
Sigma Software
Sigma Software provides cutting-edge IT solutions. Being a part of Nordic IT corporation, Sigma Group, we are a global player with 3700 employees in 12 countries and 950+ in Ukraine.
Valery Krasovsky, CEO:
“We have been working with American companies across multiple business domains for over 17 years. We are glad to be a part of our Customers’ success whether they are a large international corporation or a promising startup. Joining AmCham is an important step towards furthering our contributions into American-Ukrainian relationship.”
Operating in Ukraine since 1992, the Chamber cooperates closely with Ukrainian authorities to improve the business environment and attract foreign investments into the economy, advocates for predictable, transparent, equitable and stable rules of doing business.
Ukraine has started a tender to select candidates for the posts of independent members of the supervisory boards of state-owned PrivatBank, Oschadbank and Ukreximbank. According to a posting on the website of the Finance Ministry, the tender was started on April 5 and will be completed before May 10.
As reported, the Finance Ministry early April 2019 selected Pedersen & Partners recruiting company to search for candidates to the post of independent members of the supervisory board of state-owned Oschadbank, Ward Howell Ukraine to search for candidates for state-owned Ukreximbank and Talent Advisors, part of Odgers Berndtson Ukraine, to search for candidates for state-owned PrivatBank.
According to the ministry’s report, candidates who want to take part in the tender must apply to these recruiting companies by April 25.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada early July 2018 adopted a law on the reform of the supervisory boards of state-run banks, according to which the supervisory board of state-owned banks should consist of nine members. Six of them should be independent, three – representatives of the state, one each from the president, the Cabinet of Ministers and the parliament.
INDEPENDENT MEMBERS, OSCHADBANK, PRIVATBANK, TENDERS, UKREXIMBANK
