Mr Sevki Acuner, the EBRD's Country Director for Ukraine,  said that the shareholders of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would provide financial assistance to establish and ensure the operation of an external project office to support the financial sector reforms.

“The EBRD has recently intensified cooperation with the NBU in implementing the financial sector reforms. The EBRD consultants and experts assisted the authorities in designing and implementing a comprehensive reform program. We see the readiness of the Ukrainian authorities to push ahead with the projects implemented as part of the financial sector reforms. The EBRD will support the establishment of an external project office in an effort to push some reform projects forward. Similar offices have already been established and operate efficiently at some ministries,” underlined Mr Acuner.

Director of the NBU Strategy and Reforming Department and Financial Sector Reform Team Leader  Mr Mykhaylo Vidiakin thanked the EBRD for providing its strong support and assistance in implementing the financial sector reforms and pointed out that the external project office would be engaged in the implementation of the key cross-institutional projects that are hard to implement given the need for  high-level coordination of efforts of all the participants in the reform process.

“Thanks to the reforms, the banking system delivered a profitable performance, while the NBU focused its efforts on delivering projects to be implemented during the second stage of the reform process - the stage of restarting the banking system. The external project office will be responsible for ensuring the  proper coordination of efforts of the financial market regulators and ministries in implementing some cross-institutional projects that will be key to the success of our concerted efforts,” said Mr Vidiakin.

The external project office will focus on implementing projects in the following areas:

• strategic planning as part of the transformation of financial sector regulators;
• the resumption of lending, including putting in place efficient mechanisms for ensuring  creditor rights protection and handling distressed assets;
• the development of the FinTech market;
• raising financial awareness of the Ukrainian people;
• the improvement of financial services consumer rights protection;
• the improvement of  corporate governance of financial sector participants;
• the development of the financial sector infrastructure; and
• better coordination among the financial sector regulators.

“The EBRD currently provides a comprehensive support package for Ukraine to facilitate the development of efficient capital markets, helps improve state regulation of the market and enhance the protection of investors in securities. Undoubtedly, better coordination of efforts of the financial sector regulators will facilitate the efficient implementation of strategic projects. We are very grateful to the EBRD for its support of the national reforms. Our team work will enable us to offer better solutions  to deliver the much needed changes in the financial sector,” underlined Head of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) Mr Tymur Khromaiev.

The external project office is expected to operate for a year with the possibility to extend its operation if it achieves the set tasks and its team delivers an efficient performance.

The future team of the external project office will be formed based on the civic institution” Fund to Support Reforms in Ukraine” funded by the EBRD. The office will be administered by the NBU as a driver and leader of the financial sector reforms and the NSSMC. The EBRD will receive reports on the performance of the office and progress reports on the implementation of the respective projects by the office and the financial sector reforms as a whole.

A competitive selection procedure to fill vacancies at  the external project office was launched on 13 March 2017NSSMC and will run for two weeks.  

A competitive selection procedure to select managers to implement projects in the capital markets will be launched in the nearest future. Information about vacancies will be published on the website of the NSSMC.