Chamber News

Focus on Banking & Finance Sector of Ukraine

In pursuing its mission, the Banking & Financial Services Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine actively contributes to the Ukrainian banking system developing and promoting high quality banking standards and values as well as in local banking environment harmonization with the best international practices.

According to the Chamber Investment Climate Survey conducted in December 2015, the banking and finance sector is one of the most progressive in terms of implementing reforms. At the same time, chamber members consider the following aspects as requiring further improvement: proper financial restriction of non-performing loans (NLPs) and writing-off of bad debts (84% of respondents); proper and transparent privatization and effective corporate governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including state-owned banks (55% of respondents); and proper functioning of bank guarantees for automatic VAT refund (47% of respondents).

In addition, the committee members identified a number of priorities for 2016, in particular: IFRS implementation and creditors’ rights protections, further development of the cashless economy and liberalization of capital controls as well as development of strategic IT solutions for regulatory issues in the banking sector.

With this in mind, the Chamber maintains and develops constant dialogue with key stakeholders via a number of focused meetings and events. The most recent and significant of them are: Chamber National Bank of Ukraine Round Table Cashless Economy: Main Trends & Prospects which was devoted to discussing the main trends and prospects of developing non-cash retail payments and cashless transactions; Meeting with the Leadership of Verkhovna Rada Committee on Financial Policy and Banking focused on presentation of the main reforms in the banking sector, crucial Draft Acts and other hot issues in the sector and Quarterly Panel Discussion Macroeconomic Outlook & Forecast for Ukraine dedicated to key macroeconomic indicators in Ukraine, inflation forecast as well as investment trends and sentiments.