The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine has decided to revoke the banking license and liquidate Ayboks Bank, the 37th largest bank in terms of assets out of 66 Ukrainian banks, starting from March 7, 2023, due to a number of violations, including assistance in holding a sports poker tournament and insufficient financial monitoring of clients even after the regulator’s warning.
“The share of the financial institution amounted to 0.1% of the assets of solvent banks, so its withdrawal from the market will not affect the stability of the Ukrainian banking sector,” the NBU said in a statement on its website.
In particular, during the on-site supervision, the regulator found that seven legal entities, for which the bank has established a high level of risk, received funds for the provision of services through the payment acceptance point, in particular for organizing and holding esports and sports poker tournaments, in the total amount of more than UAH 3.5 billion from February 21 to December 1, 2022.
The NBU pointed out that the clients were newly established and only started carrying out relevant activities in 2022, their websites were launched a few days later or on the day of establishing relations with the bank, there were no expenses/information on the clients’ advertising activities to attract tournament participants, but the volume of transactions in the first days amounted to millions of hryvnias.
In addition, the clients had signs of being related to each other, but Ayboks Bank did not detect them, and identified the risk criteria only partially, generally failing to take the necessary enhanced due diligence measures.
“According to the information provided by the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries, as well as the Federation of Esports of Ukraine, which has the status of a national sports federation in the sport of esports, the clients’ activities include all elements of organizing and conducting gambling, in particular poker, on the Internet and/or bookmaking activities,” the NBU said.
The regulator also reminded that it has already fined Ayboks Bank UAH 10 million for violating the requirements of the legislation in the field of prevention and counteraction to legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but these violations continued. In addition, the NBU has twice suspended certain types of transactions conducted by the bank and removed a bank official from office.
The NBU assured that each depositor of the bank will receive compensation from the Deposit Guarantee Fund in the full amount of the deposit, including interest accrued as of the end of the day preceding the day of the start of the bank’s withdrawal from the market.
As reported, in early February, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zheleznyak accused nine banks, including Ukrgasbank and Ayboks Bank, of helping the gambling business conceal up to UAH 10 billion in turnover per month. He claimed that these banks provided a service for misdirection (change of payment purpose – IF) and withdrawal of this money: they transferred money from a player to a casino account under the guise of payment for “advertising services” or similar services.
“In other words, it was a fairly open service for the market, when the bank was well aware of what it was doing and the damage it was causing to the budget. And, of course, it charged good fees for this (3-3.5% for acquiring). Plus various offers of withdrawal to cash, USDT, etc.”, Zheleznyak said.
The MP appealed to the National Bank to impose large fines on Ukrgasbank and apply the most severe measures to Ayboks Bank. In early March, the NBU fined state-owned Ukrgasbank UAH 64.6 million.
JSC Ayboks Bank (formerly Agrocombank) was founded in 1993. As of January 31, 2023, the bank’s largest shareholders were Vladimir Drobot (73.93%) and Alena Shevtsova (24.98%).
According to the NBU, as of January 1, 2023, in terms of total assets, Ayboks Bank ranked 44th (UAH 4.467 billion) among 67 banks operating in the country. The bank ended the previous year with a net profit of UAH 598.3 million and planned to allocate 92.6% of it to increase its authorized capital.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine instructed the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food to issue licenses for the export of nitrogen mineral and chemical fertilizers in the amount of up to 210,000 tonnes by July 1, 2022, before that, the Ministry of Economy issued permits for supplies.
The corresponding resolution on the change of the licensee body (No. 458) of April 26 was published on the government website.
“The issuance of licenses for the export of goods specified in this paragraph of the notes is carried out on the basis of applications within a quota of 70,000 tonnes per month and on the basis of approvals that are provided by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy within one day without involving a subject of foreign economic activity in the order of interdepartmental exchange of information,” the decision says.
Earlier, by resolution No. 353 of March 24, the Cabinet of Ministers lifted the ban on the export of nitrogen fertilizers that it had introduced in early March, setting an export quota of up to 210,000 tonnes of products for the period until July 1, 2022. At the same time, the monthly export volume should not exceed 70,000 tonnes per month.
As reported, in early March, the government imposed a ban on the export from Ukraine of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash mineral or chemical fertilizers, as well as complex multi-component fertilizers.
Thus, the export of phosphate, potash and multicomponent fertilizers is still prohibited.
“I emphasize that this ban is of a forced and temporary nature and is used to restore the balance of certain goods in the domestic market and ensure the sowing campaign, which is extremely important in order to prevent a food crisis in Ukraine and the world,” Roman Leschenko, who served as Minister of Agricultural policy of Ukraine at that time, said.
“Resource” bill No. 5600, which is now being considered by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, suggests an almost two-fold increase in the cost of a license for the right to wholesale trade in tobacco products in 2022 – up to UAH 975,000 (150 minimum wages), and in 2023 – three-fold, to UAH 1.49 million (230 minimum wages).
MP Nina Yuzhanina (European Solidarity faction) wrote about the initiatives introduced during the consideration of the bill on Facebook on Thursday.
“The cost of the license is untied from a fixed size and transferred to the minimum wages. Argumentation of the Ministry of Finance: today there are 109 such licensees, of which only 54 have an income of more than UAH 12 million. The rest, obviously, are used in schemes. It is not clear how this will help overcome smuggling and counterfeit in the market?” she wrote.
In addition, the proposed initiative obliges manufacturers of electric heating tobacco products to determine ceiling retail prices for these products, which will be used in calculating value added tax (VAT) and excise taxes. Also, data on ceiling retail prices will be necessary for the functioning of the new system of administration of the 5% retail excise tax, which will go to local budgets, she said.
Yuzhanina said that the amendments to the “resource” bill will improve the mechanism for preventing the accumulation of stocks by manufacturers and importers of tobacco products before the next increase in excise tax rates. If the bill is passed, this rule will be in effect from 2022.
MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on Telegram that the parliamentary committee began considering the bill on September 13 and plans to consider more than 11,000 amendments five hours a day.
ERU Europe (the European subsidiary of Energy Resources of Ukraine Group, ERU) has received a license to supply and trade electricity in the Czech market.
“ERU Group is confidently expanding its presence in the European energy market,” the report on the group’s Facebook page says.
As reported, in September 2020, the group announced that ERU Europe had received a license to trade electricity on the Austrian market.
Energy Resources of Ukraine is a group of companies with foreign investments specializing in the implementation of projects in the Ukrainian energy sector. It is one of the largest private importers of natural gas and electricity to the country.
ERU Group belongs to Yaroslav Mudry and Dale Perry.
The British oil and gas company Enwell Energy plc (formerly Regal Petroleum) has extended the special permit for Svyrydivske gas condensate field in Poltava region.
According to the company’s statement on the London Stock Exchange, the application for a license renewal for a period of 20 years was granted on December 24, 2020.
The expected economic development period of Svyrydivske field, based on the assessment carried out by DeGolyer and MacNaughton as of December 2017, is 2042.
As reported, at the end of November 2020, Enwell Energy extended the special permit for Mekhedivsko-Golotovschynske gas condensate field (Poltava region).
The license for Svyrydivske field for a period of 20 years since July 2004 has been owned by the representative office of Regal Petroleum Corporation Limited.
The majority shareholder of Enwell Energy, which owns 82.65%, is Pelidona Services Limited (Cyprus) of Vadim Novinsky’s Smart-Holding Group.
Ukrainian legislation should enable pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy a license for the production of a COVID-19 vaccine, which can be developed by foreign companies, Head of the supervisory board of JSC Farmak (Kyiv) Filya Zhebrovska has said.
“Ukrainian legislation should provide an opportunity so that we can buy or use a license, possibly pay royalties, so that we have the opportunity to produce this vaccine,” the company’s press service reported, quoting her as saying.
Zhebrovska said that the possibility of buying a license to produce a COVID-19 vaccine at Ukrainian production facilities will reduce the price of this vaccine by 15-20% compared with the purchase of the finished product.
As reported, Farmak does not rule out the possibility of joining a consortium, which the European Investment Bank (EIB), together with WHO, created to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. The EIB allocated EUR 7.6 billion to this consortium.
In the middle of May, Farmak, as part of international research, began the third phase of clinical trials of the Amizon drug (Enisamium) in fighting COVID-19 in Ukraine.
Farmak is the leader in the pharmaceutical market with a share of 5.9% in monetary terms. The company annually reinvests of approximately 95% of the profits in its development.
Farmak is a member of the Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine association.
According to the public register, the ultimate beneficial owner of PJSC Farmak is Zhebrovska, who holds 80% of shares in the company.
