On November 10, 2015, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeria Gontareva met with ambassadors of G7 countries. The meeting also featured Mr. Jan Tombiński, EU Ambassador to Ukraine and Head of the EU Representative Office in Ukraine, Dr.Christof Weil, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine, Mr. Fabrizio Romano, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Italy in Ukraine, Mr. Roman Waschuk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Ukraine, Mr. Shigeki Sumi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine, Mr. Geoffrey Pyatt, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to Ukraine, Ms. Judith Gough, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Ukraine, and Mr. Frédéric de Touchet, First Counselor to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Ukraine.
The National Bank was also represented at the meeting by First Deputy Governor Oleksandr Pysaruk, Deputy Governors Vladyslav Rashkovan and Oleh Churii, and Director of the International Relations Department Sergiy Kruglyk.
Valeria Gontareva briefed the ambassadors about the situation in the FX market. “It was a perfect storm, but we managed to emerge from it. Now, we can confidently say that the situation in the banking and financial markets has stabilized. Further cooperation with the IMF will enable us to solidify our positions and build up international reserves, which currently amount to about USD 13 billion,” said the Governor of the National Bank.
First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Oleksandr Pysaruk outlined steps taken by the National Bank to ensure stability in the banking market. “Since the beginning of 2014, we have put into resolution more than 60 banks. The banking-system clean-up is over, and we are moving to the next phase - the phase of restarting the banking system. By mid-2016, we will have a transparent, stable and sufficiently capitalized banking sector, which would allow it to resume lending to the real sector,” said Oleksandr Pysaruk.
Deputy Governor of the National Bank Vladyslav Rashkovan briefed the ambassadors about the transformation the National Bank is going through. “The National Bank is getting rid of its non-core assets and contracts out its non-core functions to outsourcing service providers, we are reshaping the NBU organizational structure to make it centralized to the extent possible,” said Vladyslav Rashkovan and underlined that Ukraine’s regulator had been drawing on the world’s central banks’ best practices. The National Bank of Ukraine works in close cooperation with the central banks of the United States of America, France and England.
The ambassadors were keen to learn about foreign exchange market developments and NBU’s plans as to the removal of FX restrictions.
“We are in the first phase of FX liberalization. According to our estimates, should the situation be favorable, we will be able to lift administrative restrictions as early as at the beginning of the next year,” said Deputy Governor of the National Bank Oleh Churii.
The steps taken by the National Bank were welcomed by the ambassadors. They pointed out that the National Bank had made significant progress in cleaning up the banking system and wished Ukraine’s central bank success in its efforts to implement the financial sector reforms