Central Banking Awards 2024 has recognized Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pyshnyy as Governor of the Year. This prestigious international trophy is awarded annually by Central Banking, a British publication that evaluates the operation of central banks and financial regulators for the previous year.
“I thank the professional community for this award. Repeated recognition of our institution at such a high level comes as more evidence that the NBU’s work is effective. We have learned to go beyond what is conventionally perceived as a central bank’s business, and to take a broader approach to our mandate. The year 2023 convinced everyone of how tangible the consequences of russian aggression are for the world. We are grateful to the partners that are walking this path with Ukraine. Partnership is the foundation of the free world and of the effective functioning and governance of all of its systems. And this requires deepening cooperation, with the awareness that Ukraine’s Victory is a matter of global security and macrofinancial stability both now and going forward,” said Andriy Pyshnyy.
The international jury recognized Andriy Pyshnyy’s achievements as NBU Governor in 2023, his leadership skills, and the decisions he made to secure price and financial stability in Ukraine in wartime to promote sustainable economic growth.
First, during Andriy Pyshnyy’s tenure, the NBU managed to maintain confidence in the domestic currency despite the full-scale war. Hryvnia retail term deposits grew by 37% in 2023. Moreover, inflation declined significantly, from 26.6% to 5.1% in 2023, returning to the NBU’s target range (5% ± 1 pp). Thanks to a balanced exchange rate and interest rate policy and strong external assistance, international reserves remained at a high level of USD 40.5 billion in 2023, up by 42% compared to 2022.
Second, thanks to the appropriate preconditions and thorough preparation, the NBU was able to successfully transition to managed flexibility of the exchange rate in October 2023 to strengthen the resilience and adaptability of Ukraine’s economy. After the transition, the depth of the FX market gradually increased: as of the end of the year, the volume of banks’ transactions without the NBU’s participation was three times the level of September. The successful transition to a regime of managed flexibility of the exchange rate has been recognized globally, in particular by the IMF.
Third, given the stable macroeconomic situation, the NBU launched a cycle of key policy rate cuts in summer 2023. In July, the key policy rate was reduced by 10 percentage points: from 25% to 15%. These steps took into account the task of preserving public trust in hryvnia-denominated savings instruments. At the same time, they supported economic recovery by reducing the cost of lending. The NBU also made its best efforts to revive the domestic debt market, in particular by allowing banks to use benchmark domestic government debt securities to partially meet their reserve requirement ratios. In 2023, the government’s borrowing in the domestic debt market more than doubled to UAH 566 billion. Constructive dialog and cooperation between the NBU and the Ministry of Finance were established due to the active involvement of the NBU Governor.
Fourth, the NBU actively fought against shady schemes and was able, within its mandate, to find ways to increase state budget revenues without relying on central bank financing. By scrutinizing banks’ financial transactions, the NBU detected and liquidated large-scale fraud schemes by the gambling business to siphon money out of Ukraine with the help of unscrupulous financial institutions. As a result of joint actions of the NBU and other authorities, tax revenues from gambling rapidly increased in 2023: to 14 times the level of 2022 and 51 times that of 2021.
Fifth, the NBU’s role in strengthening international financial support for Ukraine increased. In 2023, the financing of the general fund of Ukraine’s budget by international partners (USD 43 billion) exceeded by 34% the amount of aid received in 2022 (USD 32 billion). This was facilitated by the NBU Governor’s active personal involvement in building quality relations with international partners and his personal communications, specifically regarding the rebooting of the relationship between the NBU and the Ministry of Finance, the effective teamwork to fulfill Ukraine's international obligations, and ensuring that the NBU meets all its structural benchmarks in a timely manner and achieves quantitative performance criteria in the IMF program. In addition, the NBU stepped up efforts to convey to partners the importance of imposing comprehensive sanctions on the aggressor state’s financial sector. Those efforts led to decisions by individual countries to add russian-based financial institutions to their sanctions lists.
Sixth, the regulator ensured the continuous operation of the banking system and its sustainable development, even in the face of russia’s shelling of critical infrastructure and cyberattacks. These efforts include: the introduction of the POWER BANKING project, which enabled banks to provide uninterrupted services to the public during blackouts; the formation of strategic goals for the development of the financial sector during the war, and, among other things, the approval of the updated NBU Strategy and the Strategy for the Development of the Financial Sector of Ukraine; seamless transition to a new generation of the electronic payment system (SEP-4.0) based on the international standard ISO 20022 and operating in 24/7/365 mode; automation and adjustment of digital business processes, in central bank procurement in particular.
To read more, follow the link to Central Banking Awards' press release.
Central Banking is a top international publication for central bankers that caters to subscribers in more than 100 countries.
Central Banking Awards is a series of trophies granted annually by Central Banking. Central Banking Awards features 26 categories, with 13 central bank categories and 13 financial market participant categories.
Central banks compete for awards in the following nominations: Central Bank of the Year, Governor of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Economics in Central Banking, Transparency Award, Reserve Manager, Currency Manager, Risk Manager, Initiative of the Year, Website, Outstanding Contribution for Capacity Building, Financial Inclusion, and Payments and Market Infrastructure Development. Information about winners in each category is published in several stages.
The first time in the history of Ukraine that the NBU won a Central Banking award was in the spring of 2019, when it received the Transparency Award. The second time the NBU had received this international award was in 2021, when the central bank won the Currency Manager category.
Last year, the NBU received triple recognition and awards from Central Banking in the following categories: Central bank of the year, Payments and Market Infrastructure Development and Currency Manager.