The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has revoked the licenses of six financial institutions and removed two from the State Register and two from the Register of persons that are not financial institutions but have the right to provide certain financial services.
According to the regulator’s website, based on their own applications and submitted documents, all existing licenses were revoked and they were excluded from the State Register of Financial Institutions: Lombard “Capital Credit” Shevchenko and Company, LLC, A.T. Finance, LLC, FC Euro Premier Finance.
In addition, all existing licenses were revoked at the request of Lombard Regional PA, Zlatodar 585 PE and Company, and FC Fly Finance LLC, and FC Atlanta LLC was excluded from the State Register of Financial Institutions and Leasing Company Agrofund LLC was excluded from the Register of Persons that are not financial institutions but have the right to provide certain financial services.
They were also excluded from the State Register of Financial Institutions: Instant Lending Service LLC – due to the NBU’s decision to revoke all existing licenses and FC Sun-Rise Financial LLC – due to the absence of financial services licenses for three months.
Due to the fact that SE “Spetsagroleasing” does not have a valid license to provide financial services, the company was excluded from the Register of persons that are not financial institutions but have the right to provide certain financial services.
The NBU Committee on Supervision and Regulation of Non-Banking Financial Services Markets made these decisions at a meeting on October 20, 2023.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) proposes to raise the corporate income tax rate from 18% to 38% in 2023-2024, NBU Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said.
“Our forecast is that additional budget revenues if the current rate is raised to 38% will total more than UAH 20 billion this year and next year,” he wrote on Facebook.
According to him, such a tax design will have a limited impact on macrofinancial stability and at the same time support Ukraine’s defense capabilities.
The NBU governor, citing the monitoring of the financial condition and the results of the assessment of the banks’ stability, believes that financial institutions are quite capable of making additional payments in the current environment. According to the regulator, the tax rate increase will have a limited impact on lending and deposit rates, given the banks’ sufficient margins.
As reported, the National Bank considers additional taxation of banks to be a justified temporary step in view of the war, seeing financial and legal grounds for this, but proposes to increase the tax rate on banks’ profits instead of taxing net interest income as proposed by MPs.
According to Pyshnyi, this is the version the NBU will discuss with the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy in the near future.
He also said that the market participants with whom the central bank communicated were sympathetic to this position.
According to the NBU, the net profit of 64 operating Ukrainian banks in the first seven months of this year amounted to UAH 83.2 billion, while the income tax was UAH 14.4 billion, including UAH 34.4 billion and UAH 7.9 billion for PrivatBank, and UAH 18.8 billion and UAH 0.1 billion for four other state-owned banks.
In late August, MPs submitted to the Rada a bill to tax banks’ net interest income at a rate of 5% in 2024-2026 (in addition to corporate income tax), which could bring in about UAH 10 billion to the state budget next year, according to their estimates. In the first half of 2023, banks’ interest income reached UAH 141 billion, including UAH 73.5 billion from transactions with government securities, and net interest income for the same period amounted to UAH 93.6 billion, up 75% compared to the pre-war period of 2021.
The National Bank of Ukraine’s (NBU) net sales of dollars in the second week of September jumped to $873.1 million from $302.3 million a week earlier, the highest level this year.
According to the NBU’s website, from September 11 to 15, its purchases of foreign currency fell to a meager $0.05 million, while sales jumped from $302.7 million to $873.1 million.
On the cash market, the dollar rose by 20 kopecks over the week, approaching the level of 38.2 UAH/$1. On Monday, Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said that the draft state budget for 2024 includes an average annual exchange rate of 41.4 UAH/$1.
As reported, in August, the volume of the National Bank’s interventions increased to $2.364 billion from $1.933 billion in July and $1.798 million in June. At the same time, the volume of external financing in August decreased to $1.664 billion, so international reserves decreased by 3.2% to $40.387 billion from a record high of $41.72 billion.
In total, since the beginning of this year, the NBU has purchased $195.9 million in the market, while selling $18 billion 21.8 million.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has decided to cut its key policy rate again to 20% per annum from 22% per annum, effective September 15, in line with market expectations.
“Taking into account the balance of risks, the rapid decline in inflation and the ability to maintain exchange rate stability, the NBU Board has decided to cut the key policy rate to 20% (…) Further slowdown in inflation and the NBU’s ability to ensure exchange rate stability allow the NBU to continue the cycle of rate cuts while maintaining sufficient attractiveness of hryvnia savings. Such a step will support economic recovery and at the same time does not pose a threat to macrofinancial stability,” the central bank said on its website on Thursday.
The NBU noted that price dynamics were better than the NBU expected, primarily due to an increase in food supply, in particular, good harvests contributed to lower prices for cereals, flour, vegetables and some fruits.
“At the same time, the decline in core inflation (to 10% yoy in August) was close to the NBU’s July forecast. The NBU’s measures to ensure the attractiveness of hryvnia assets and the stability of the foreign exchange market played an important role in easing underlying price pressures. In particular, they contributed to further improvement of exchange rate and inflation expectations,” the central bank added.
It is noted that the general downward trend in inflation will continue, but the potential for a rapid slowdown is almost exhausted.
“On the one hand, better harvests will limit price growth in the coming months. The impact of fixing certain tariffs for housing and communal services will also remain,” the NBU explained.
The NBU will continue to ensure the stability of the foreign exchange market to keep exchange rate and inflation expectations under control, which will contribute to a further decline in
On the other hand, the pressure on business costs will be significant due to both war-related losses and rising electricity and fuel prices, which may restrain the slowdown in inflation, the NBU added.
In the future, the NBU expects to continue the cycle of key policy rate cuts, the implementation of which will be consistent with the need to maintain the attractiveness of hryvnia assets as a prerequisite for the stability of the foreign exchange market and a steady decline in inflation.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has applied a measure of influence in the form of temporary suspension of licenses to non-life insurer “European Insurance Group” (EIG, Kharkiv) in connection with non-submission of reports since the end of last year.
As reported by the central bank on Tuesday, the Committee for Supervision and Regulation of Non-banking Financial Services Markets has set a deadline for the insurer to eliminate violations until September 26, 2023.
According to the National Bank, for the first nine months of 2022, the insurer received 2542.2 thousand UAH of insurance premiums and made 39.4 thousand UAH of insurance payments, while the company’s market share for the period amounted to 0.01%.
As reported, on October 8, 2021 the NBU has agreed to Ivan Volkov indirect ownership of 99,998% of shares of ALC “European Insurance Group”. Earlier, on July 6, 2021, a trustee was appointed to this company to manage 99.998% of the insurer’s shares, the ownership of which was indirectly through LLC “Victori-21”.
UGG was registered by the National Commission for Financial Services in August 2016. The authorized capital of the company amounts to UAH 30 mln.
On September 7, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revoked the licenses of Gestalt Group Insurance Company and INTO Insurance Company (both based in Kyiv) to conduct financial services business.
According to the regulator’s website, the decision was made with respect to Gestalt Group due to the fact that the insurer’s ownership structure does not meet the requirements of Ukrainian legislation, and with respect to INTO for failure to comply with the National Bank’s decisions to eliminate violations of license conditions.
According to the latest financial statements submitted by Gestalt Group Insurance Company, as of June 30, 2023, the company’s insurance premiums amounted to UAH 5,971 million, assets amounted to UAH 81,642 million, and insurance reserves amounted to UAH 1,952 million. The company’s market share in terms of insurance premiums amounted to 0.03%.
According to the latest reports submitted by INTO Insurance Company, the volume of insurance premiums amounted to UAH 28.767 million, the value of assets – UAH 139.178 million, insurance reserves – UAH 18.028 million. The company’s market share in terms of insurance premiums amounted to -0.2%.
The NBU emphasizes that the decisions come into force on September 8. In the event of license revocation, a financial services representative must fulfill its obligations under contracts with clients for the type of financial services specified in the decision, concluded before the date of entry into force of the decision to revoke the license.
