The National Bank of Ukraine fined Avangard Bank JSC 2 million UAH for violating financial monitoring regulations, the regulator announced on its website.
According to the NBU’s statement, the bank was fined for improper application of a risk-based approach, failure to identify a financial transaction subject to financial monitoring, and improper analysis of customer transactions for indicators of suspicious activity.
In addition, the regulator issued written warnings to the bank. These warnings concern the improper development and implementation of internal documents on financial monitoring, as well as the submission of erroneous information on foreign exchange transactions to the NBU.
As previously reported, in May, the NBU imposed sanctions on one bank and nine non-bank financial institutions for violations in the areas of financial monitoring and foreign exchange legislation.
Bank Avangard JSC operates in the Ukrainian banking market and provides services to corporate and private clients.
The National Depository of Ukraine (NDU) on December 29 registered the first issue of deposit certificates in Ukraine, the issuer of which was Bank Avangard (Kyiv), the institution’s press service reported.
“A new instrument – a deposit certificate appeared thanks to the innovations of law No. 738 (came into force on July 1). This is the first case when an issue is registered by the central depository, and we hope for great attention to this instrument from the capital market participants,” the NDU said.
The National Depository noted that the technology for issuing a deposit certificate is completely based on paperless communication.
“This is another significant step in the direction of securitization, thanks to which new financial instruments appear,” Maryna Adamovska, a member of the NDU board, said.
As reported, the head of the debt securities issue department of ICU Investment Group, which includes Bank Avangard, Ruslan Kilmukhametov, in mid-December announced the debut issue of deposit certificates for the market.
“The bank’s deposit certificate is a revolutionary product for Ukraine, as it shortens the issuer’s path to the capital market from 2-3 months when issuing bonds to 2-3 working days required for the placement of bank certificates,” he said.
The expert explained that in case of a non-public offering, that is, with a well-known circle of persons, the registration of the issue is carried out by the NDU, and not by the regulator, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
“Thus, the bank can very quickly enter the deposit certificate market. If it needs money, it can “raise its hand,” gain demand, register an issue and sell these certificates,” the head of the ICU department noted.
