On March 26, 2014, NBU Governor Stepan Kubiv had a working meeting with European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget Janusz Lewandowski.

As is known, a delegation of the European Commission came to Ukraine to address issues related to the implementation of the political part of the EU-Ukraine association agreement, as well as to discuss political and economic reforms in Ukraine.

During the meeting, the participants covered the current state of Ukraine’s financial system, as well as the conditions for, and ways of receiving EU financial aid to stabilize the economic situation. They discussed providing EUR 1 billion in financial aid, apart from the previously negotiated macrofinancial aid package of EUR 610 million.

Kubiv told the European Commissioner about the steps the NBU is currently taking to restore the health of the banking system and to revive household confidence in it. These steps include, among other things, providing support for bank liquidity, increasing the protection of depositors’ interests, establishing uniform rules that are clear for all financial market players, and adopting a transparent and open policy at all banking sector levels.

The Governor also told the participants about NBU intentions to reform its operation, including developing an NBU strategy for the period up to 2020. To that end, the NBU is planning to involve qualified external experts. Kubiv said that current deposit guarantee schemes also had to be improved, to bring them into line with best European practices.

Lewandowski welcomed the government and National Bank’s intentions to carry out comprehensive reforms of the economy at large, and the financial sector in particular. He said that the EU was willing to start providing the required financial aid after respective agreements were reached with the IMF.