Today, Kyrylo Shevchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), held his first meeting with Melinda Simmons, British Ambassador to Ukraine. The parties discussed some important issues, such as the current state of the Ukrainian economy and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, continued cooperation with international partners, future NBU policy and further steps in reforming the financial system of Ukraine.
"At present, the main NBU goal is to remain a predictable and open partner. Close relations with international partners are the achievements of previous years, and we intend to put maximum effort to keep them as they are. For our part, you will observe responsibility regarding all assumed commitments and continued consistent NBU policy," noted Kyrylo Shevchenko.
In response to Melinda Simmons’s questions the NBU Governor said that the central bank did everything reasonably possible to effectively counter the pandemic challenges and the first wave of coronavirus in Ukraine. Since the quarantine was imposed, the key policy rate in Ukraine was reduced from 11% to 6%, the NBU was constantly monitoring the FX market and alleviated excessive fluctuations, and introduced the anti-crisis package. In particular, the NBU provided for banks the option of introducing loan repayment holidays, imposed a ban for banks to introduce any limitations to access funds for households, encouraged online customer servicing, and expanded banks’ access to funding, including long-term funding.
"The NBU’s independence is critical for stability of the Ukrainian economy. Without exaggeration, this is the only way to preserve macrofinancial stability in the country," noted the Governor, "In continuing the financial system reform my goal is to focus on reforming corporate governance in state-owned banks. The NBU’s following steps will be in that direction.”
"We support your desire to continue banking sector reform, including reform of corporate governance in state-owned banks. And we very much appreciate your plan to be consistent, to continue and to strengthen reforms of previous years," noted Melinda Simmons.
Melinda Simmons and Kyrylo Shevchenko also agreed to cooperate and share expertise in the following areas: measures of governments and central banks to counter the pandemic, introducing green technologies in the economy, regulating the nonbank financial market, and advancing financial inclusion.