On 11 September 2017, the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine issued Resolution On Approval of the NBU Regulations on Accounting No. 89  (Resolution 89) that introduces changes to the Chart of Accounts of Ukrainian Banks and the respective Instruction on application of the Chart of Accounts.

The document aims to ensure that transactions performed by the banks in Ukraine are recorded and presented in accordance with IFRS 9 Financial Instruments (2014 version) that will come in force since 1 January 2018.

Bohdan Lukasevych, Accounting Department Director at the NBU, said that at the moment all the Ukrainian banks kept their accounting record and compiled their financial statements in accordance with the IFRS, but yet again the banking community was facing an important challenge - a move to IFRS 9 in 2018.

"The NBU is keeping track of developments in the international standards, studying them in detail, implementing them and trying to set an example in this field for the whole banking system and, in general, for the whole Ukraine", - stressed Lukasevych.

Resolution No. 89, inter alia, has provisions on:

• approval of the amended version of the Chart of Accounts of Ukrainian Banks (CoA) and the Instruction on CoA application, that come into force on 25 December 2017
• amendments to the effective CoA version and CoA application Instruction that have to ensure move to the new CoA 
• giving the banks opportunity to prepare, in particular to upgrade their software, in order to ensure smooth transition to the new CoA and respective compilation of statistics.

As required by IFRS 9, the NBU has defined the stages of transition to the new CoA. Resolution No. 89 sets a transition period for transfer of balances:

• 1 December through 14 December 2017, banks have to transfer balances in accordance with the transitional table for accounts for discount (premium) on credits/deposits; short-term, long-term and overdue credits/deposits; overdue accrued credit/deposit income/loss
• 18 December through 24 December 2017, banks have to transfer balances in accordance with the transitional table of accounts for loan loss provisions.

For reference:

In general, the NBU has begun to adopt IFRS since 1998.

It was the time when banks of Ukraine and the NBU introduced IFRS, having started with the basic principles. These were the principles of accrual of income and expenses, business continuity, the prevalence of economic substance over the legal form in the reporting, etc.

Since 2012, banks have been obliged to compile, submit and publish their financial statements according to IFRS.