The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved a list of the banks eligible to engage in FX interventions in the form of a request for quote (so-called RFQ interventions) in April–June 2019.
At the same time, the list does not restrict banks from participating in the Matching interventions, that is, when the NBU selects the best quote in a trading and information system and executes a contract with a bank making the bid. Such interventions are open for participation to any bank operating a system with the embedded Matching engine. It should be noted that the NBU carries out the majority of best quote interventions using the Matching engine.
In contrast to Q1 2019, the list of selected banks was extended to include a new bank – Bank Vostok PJSC. Ukrsotsbank PJSC was expunged due to its takeover by Alfa-Bank JSC.
Thus, the following financial institutions will participate in the said FX interventions in April–June 2019:
- Alfa-Bank JSC
- Bank Alliance JSC
- Bank for Investments and Savings PJSC
- Bank Vostok PJSC
- CB Globus PJSC
- ING Bank Ukraine PJSC
- Industrialbank JSCB
- Credit Agricole Bank PJSC
- OTP Bank JSC
- Oschadbank JSC
- Pivdennyi JSB
- CB PrivatBank JSC
- FUIB PJSC
- Raiffeisen Bank Aval JSC
- Sberbank JSC
- Citibank JSC
- Tascombank JSC
- Ukrgasbank JSB
- Ukreximbank JSC
- UkrSibbank JSС
In Q1 2019, the NBU purchased nearly USD 792 million in the interbank FX market. The regulator purchased over a half of this amount (USD 417.5 million) through the best quote interventions, whereof USD 402.5 million were executed using Matching and USD 15 million – RFQ. The NBU purchased another USD 374.1 million through the single quote interventions using Matching.
Over this period, the NBU sold almost USD 167 million in the interbank FX market, including USD 108.5 million through the best quote interventions. The entire amount was purchased on Matching. The NBU sold another USD 58.3 million through the single quote interventions on Matching.
Please be reminded that the interventions in the form of a request for quote were introduced in early 2017 pursuant to the NBU’s Foreign Exchange Market Intervention Strategy for 2016–2020.
According to the selection criteria, the NBU narrows down all interbank market traders to the 20 top-ranked banks that will engage in such interventions. Banks’ rating is evaluated based on the previous-quarter results according to the following three criteria:
- the value of bank FX purchases and sales between such bank and other market players, including the NBU (the share in the overall rating is 50%)
- the value of bank transactions with customers on purchasing and selling noncash foreign currency (the share in this rating is 30%)
- the value of bank assets (the share in the rating is 20%).