The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will send part of its profit for 2018 in the amount of UAH 64.878 billion to the national budget, Head of the NBU Council Bohdan Danylyshyn wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the decision of the NBU Council. “The Council decided to approve the distribution of profits of the National Bank of Ukraine for 2018 in the amount of UAH 64.878 billion in the following areas: the formation of total reserves of net worth of the National Bank of Ukraine – UAH 3.566 billion; obligations of the National Bank of Ukraine to the national budget of Ukraine for 2018 year – UAH 64.878 billion,” he wrote.
As reported on the website of the NBU, the main components of the profit of the central bank are the interest profit, as well as the results of operations with financial assets and liabilities in foreign currency and financial tools.
Net interest income after the release of reserves for 2018 is UAH 34.9 billion (in 2017 – UAH 45.2 billion). In 2018, the result of currency revaluation for the first time since 2013 became negative due to the strengthening of the hryvnia exchange rate to foreign currencies and amounts to UAH 2.2 billion. A positive result from the revaluation of debt securities at fair value is UAH 6.7 billion (in 2017 – UAH 2.7 billion). Administrative expenses of the NBU and costs associated with the manufacture of banknotes, coins and other products amount to UAH 3.78 billion (in 2017 – UAH 3.59 billion). Also in 2018, funds secured for legal obligations, including lawsuits, in the amount of UAH 2.1 billion were released.
The schedule for transferring part of the NBU profit for 2018 to the national budget will be agreed with the Finance Ministry of Ukraine, the NBU said.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will reduce the refinancing rate to 17.5% from 18% from April 26, 2019, NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii has said at a briefing.
“The board of the National Bank decided to lower the refinancing rate to 17.5% per annum from April 26. Currently, a steady downward trend in inflation towards the 5% target allows the National Bank to begin the cycle of reducing the refinancing rate,” he said.
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 National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved the application of the international bank account number (IBAN) in Ukraine starting from 2019, the central bank has reported on its website.
The decision is outlined in NBU Board resolution No. 162 dated January 28, 2018 on the introduction of IBAN.
According to the new standard, the valid account numbers for clients will be supplemented with the country code and the bank code. According to the NBU, it will simplify the identification of the payer and the recipient of funds, as well as the bank of Ukraine, which settles payments, it will allow avoiding errors in the account details by reducing the details in the settlement documents, and will accelerate the transfer of funds.
As the National Bank said, from April 1, 2019, banks will open new IBAN accounts to customers, and banks will change their current account numbers from April 1 through October 31, 2019, in accordance with the requirements of the new standard, while maintaining the current number of analytical accounting. In the period from April 1 through October 31, 2019, bank customers can indicate both a valid account number and a bank code, and a number in the IBAN standard in the details of payment documents.
In addition, the use of IBAN will become mandatory for customers of all banks of Ukraine in the implementation of money transfers, both in national and in foreign currencies, including cross border transfers. That is, all transfers will be carried out exclusively using IBAN.
According to the National Bank, the application of the new standard will harmonize the Ukrainian payment space with the European one, and will contribute to the further planned modernization of the Electronic Payment System of the central bank.
The use of IBAN in the future will also make it possible to use QR codes that will contain information on IBAN, to simplify the payment of bills and exchange with payment information.
The ongoing strengthening of the hryvnia is a consequence of the high value of the national currency due to a tight monetary and weighted fiscal policy, as well as growing earnings from exports, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy has said.
“There are several factors that are conducive to the stronger hryvnia: these are, first of all, a tight monetary policy, a balanced fiscal policy, and the third important factor is that this year Ukraine has gathered a harvest that was a record over the years of independence. All this means export earnings which have reinforced what is happening today,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.
As reported, the hryvnia forex rate has been strengthening since the end of October. After the introduction of martial law on November 26 until December 26, the national currency dropped sharply to UAH 28.315 per U.S. dollar. However, after a couple of days, the hryvnia resumed its positive momentum, which has accelerated sharply since December 17. The hryvnia forex rate on the interbank forex market on Friday strengthened to UAH 27.385 per U.S. dollar from UAH 27.515 at the end of the previous working day. Quotes of the hryvnia at the end of trading stood at UAH 27.37-27.40 per U.S. dollar.
The arrival of the first disbursement under a new Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and related financing can increase the country’s international reserves to more than $20.4 billion by the end of this year, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy has said.
“Our reserves can grow to more than it was on January 31, 2013, and they will exceed $20.4 billion,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.
Churiy specified that this forecast was made taking into account the expected arrival of about $400 million in external financing, which the government will raise under guarantees provided by the World Bank.
The NBU official recalled that Ukraine had received $1.4 billion in the first SBA disbursement in the past week, and EUR 500 million in the first tranche of the EU’s Macro-Financial Assistance was provided earlier this month.
As reported, after the receipt of the first SBA disbursement, the National Bank on December 21 reported the growth of the international reserves to $20.1 billion, which was a five-year maximum: the previous time such a level of the international reserves was recorded in January 2014.
The National Bank of Ukraine in early November lowered the forecast of the country’s international reserves for the end of 2018 to $19.2 billion from $20.7 billion, for 2019 to $18.6 billion from $18.8 billion and for 2020 to $19.1 billion from $19. 7 billion.
