Today, on April 18, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine met with representatives of the pressure group representing the interests of the Ukrainian citizens who had left the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and moved to other Ukrainian regions where they were offered temporary residence.
Mr Stepan Kubiv noted that the National Bank closely followed the developments and worked out possible ways to solve the problems, specifically, allowing the customers of branches and branch offices of the banks operating in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to regain access to their savings, salary, pension and other checking accounts held at these banks.
“Given a current tricky situation, we simply cannot remain indifferent and ignore the challenges faced by those who were forced to leave the Crimean peninsula as it goes against our moral principles," he emphasized reassuring the representatives of the pressure group that a mechanism allowing the citizens to exercise their legal right to manage their income and savings would be established in the near future.
The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine explained that Crimean residents who had left Crimea and moved to other Ukrainian regions for temporary residence, first and foremost, have to apply to the social protection authorities to confirm their status and get the respective documents (certificates). Upon receipt of this certificate, customers of branches of the banks operating in Crimea may apply to other branches of their banking institutions operating in the mainland to undergo an identification process and activate their savings and checking accounts.
“The National Bank urges banks to ensure the smooth rendering of services to customers of banks' branches operating in Crimea. We have already requested the banking institutions to set up within the shortest possible time-frame a procedure to render services and meet obligations to depositors or other creditors being customers of banks' branches operating in Crimea and publish detailed information on their official websites,” said Mr Stepan Kubiv adding that through joint efforts by the authorities, banking community and the public all temporary difficulties would be overcome and Ukrainian citizens would have unimpaired access to their funds.
It is worth mentioning that on April 15, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed the Law of Ukraine on Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of the Citizens in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine, which would enable banking institutions to operate properly, ensure the protection of the rights of consumers of financial services and timely fulfilment of banks' obligations to depositors residing in Crimea.