Ukrainian Bar Association

UBA Competition Committee Meeting

A regular meeting of UBA Competition Committee was held on 10 Decem- ber 2014. As the new government of Ukraine has defined reforming antimonopoly legislation as a priority, Committee members examined the situation with the preparation of certain Drafts developed according to the Plan to reform competition law. The Drafts On Changes to the On Protection of Economic Competition (concerening consideration of application for concentration by simplified procedure) Act of Ukraine and On Changes to the On Protection of Economic Competition (concerening improvement of permit procedures) Act of Ukraine were worked on during the meeting. The Drafts have been prepared with support from Asters and Sayenko Kharenko law firms. In addition, the tasks of the Committee for 2015 in light of implementation of the provisions of the EU — Ukraine Association Agreement were submitted at the meeting. For instance, in the current year the Committee is going to examine issues of legal regulation of control over allocation of state aid. It should be mentioned that an active member of the Committee, Victoria Ptashnyk, founding partner of Droit Law Firm, was elected to Parliament in 2014.

UBA Banking & Finance and Insurance Committee Round Table

The round table of the UBA Banking & Finance and Insurance Committee on the system for guaranteeing the deposits of individuals in Ukraine was held on 18 Decem- ber 2014. The speakers, including: Helen Lynnyk, managing partner of Gryphon Investment Consulting Group, Andriy Olenchik, deputy managing director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF), Ivan Vyshnevskyy, key lawyer of control and security sector of the DGF and Volodymyr Pospolitak, associate professor of management and economics department of MIM-Kyiv, dwelled at length on national standards and practical aspects of guaranteeing depositors protection in a bank crisis. Within the framework of the meeting, the participants concentrated on considering the pattern of work of the DGF and practical aspects of removing insolvent banks from the market in 2013-2014. In particular, they discussed the interests of depositors, interests of other creditors of banks as well as the state, possibilities of investors’ participation in the process of bank removal. Participants could not pass over the issues of deposits’ guarantee, recommendations of the DGF for depositors in case of bank insolvency and peculiarities of creditors demands as well as the legal grounds of responsibility for owners of substantial shares and banks’ management. The issue of banks insolvency is rather urgent in Ukraine, as in the previous year 32 banks were bankrupted, and 15 of them started the procedure of liquidation. The flight of capital from banks has taken place exactly because Ukraine faced a need to implement an effective mechanism for countering this phenomenon and to in-crease the responsibility of owners and controllers of banks for bringing them to insolvency, Helen Lynnyk stressed. The DGF has seen its powers extended to removal of insolvent banks from the market through introduction of temporary administration and their liquidation. Amongst the most widespread breaches that the officials of the DGF encounter are the giving of improper mortgages to banks, removal or destruction of mortgaged property, acquisition of assets of banks by means of extension of fictitious loans.