The National Bank of Ukraine Publishes the Annual Report for 2016

The National Bank of Ukraine has published its key document – the Annual Report for 2016, which presents a summary of the regulator’s performance in 2016 along the main lines of activity.

The report provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of the NBU’s activities, including the decisions taken, core functions, as well as reform and transformation processes. The Annual Report also provides insight into the external and internal factors affecting the decision-making process, highlights the accomplishments, and contains the NBU’s Consolidated Financial Statements for 2016 and an audit opinion accompanying these statements.

The document states that the year 2016 was a year of large-scale reforms and changes, building on the previous year’s groundwork: "External conditions remained unfavorable with global risks mounting. Nevertheless, economic indicators and banking sector trends offer reason for optimism".

The NBU’s key achievements in 2016:

• the NBU succeeded in stabilizing the macrofinancial situation, set the stage for economic growth and for key economic indicators to return to optimal levels;
• the regulator developed a new monetary policy;
• over the course of the year, the NBU gradually cut its key policy rate from 22% to 14% and removed some foreign exchange restrictions;
• the NBU's international reserves rose by 17%;
• comprehensive stress testing of the banking system was conducted, covering 98% of total assets of the domestic banking sector;
• the banking system reached 100% transparency;
• a new system was implemented to assess financial stability and supervision;
• the NBU completed a diagnostic study of related party transactions;
• the banking sector is gradually trending towards recovery, with 63 banks posting profits of UAH 10.8 billion as of 1 January 2017;
• confidence in the banking system is gradually being restored;
• banknotes of the hryvnia remain among the most secure in the world;
• cashless Economy Project was launched;
• cashless payments became more and more popular in Ukraine;
• the BankID system for identifying bank customers to provide administrative services from the government became operational.
• last year, the PROSTIR Ukrainian Payment Area national payment system underwent a series of important changes that promoted its development.
• the NBU’s internal transformation is under way;
• The Comprehensive Program of Ukrainian Financial Sector Development Until 2020, which serves as a roadmap for reforms, was updated;
• The National Bank of Ukraine became the first institution awarded the HR Brand 2016 award in the area of Human Resources; and
• the central bank organized its first international research conference and hosted the IMF-World Bank Constituency Meeting, a meeting of regional members of the IMF and World Bank (Ukraine is a member of both).

The design of the Annual Report for 2016 is based on the design of the Ukrainian hryvnia banknotes since last year Ukraine’s national currency celebrated the 20th anniversary of its introduction. The design further highlights the NBU’s values, mission and vision, which were published in the 2015 Annual Report.

One of this year’s design novelties is to devote each section of the Annual Report to a certain value, mission and vision, which starts with the cover featuring a conventionalized image (portrait) of a historical personality depicted on the banknote. The quotation has been selected to reveal the core message of each section of the NBU’s Annual Report.

The Ukrainian version of the 2016 Annual Report is available here.

The English version of the 2016 Annual Report will be published within a month.

Consolidated Financial Statements of the NBU for the Year Ended 31 December 2016 can be found here.