Dear Ukrainians!
The National Bank of Ukraine has been the target of an information campaign orchestrated by some political forces.
The leader of the Batkivshchyna political party, Ms Yulia Tymoshenko, convened a rally of failed banks’ depositors and blatantly deceives Ukrainians. The figures and facts Ms Tymoshenko used in her speeches and propaganda materials have no substance and hold no water.
Ms Tymoshenko has been joined by several MPs who are attempting to destabilize the economic situation only to serve their own political purposes.
Populist slogans serve the interests of the owners of failed banks. The NBU prevented them from carrying out sham transactions, withdrawing funds from banks, and extending loans to themselves from the bank's deposits to finance their own business. Furthermore, they do not want to repay their debts.
Last year the Ukrainian parliament passed a law strengthening the responsibility of banks’ owners and management for driving banks into bankruptcy. The NBU and the Deposit Guarantee Fund have lodged over 3,300 claims with law enforcement authorities in which they reported crimes that have inflicted damage amounting to approximately UAH 300 billion. The owners of failed banks siphoned these funds from financial institutions to finance their business empires. Their banks went bankrupt and depositors incurred losses when their banks failed. However, their core business thrives and yields them huge profits, thus gaining them a spot on the list of the wealthiest Ukrainians.
The shareholders of failed banks should face justice and return the stolen money to the depositors of their banks.
Neither political forces nor oligarchs that have launched a smear campaign against the NBU want to increase the well-being of ordinary Ukrainians and repay deposits to depositors. The orchestrators of this dirty campaign pursue opportunistic purposes for regime change and bringing to power those political forces supportive of the owners of failed banks that would turn a blind-eye to their multibillions in debts.
The path of lies is wide and streamlined, while the path of truth is always narrow. If the orchestrators of this campaign carried out their promises, Ukraine would return to the era of the nineties. The banknote printing machine would be used to print money, as was the case in the past. A total of UAH 84 billion worth of refinancing loans was extended to banks and another UAH 12 billion was injected into banks as part of the recapitalization efforts under then Prime Minister Ms Tymoshenko. Most of these funds was siphoned from banks by their owners and would never be returned.
Millions of ordinary Ukrainians would feel the negative effects of printing more money. Under present conditions, this move would trigger a surge in prices for products and services, cause depreciation of the hryvnia, and lead to higher import costs (primarily for pharmaceuticals and fuel). Ukraine would lose its international support and the international community would not help our country any longer.
Over the past two years, the NBU has succeeded in stabilizing the macroeconomic situation and cleaning up the banking sector. The banks that had no assets, but only liabilities before depositors, have been withdrawn from the market. We can see an economic recovery and an increase in international reserves, inflation trending downward, and the revival of public confidence in the banking system. The NBU has not resorted to printing more money. The regulator has adopted monetary policy geared toward price stability in the country.
Our steps are supported by the international community and the reform-minded domestic banking community. However, some Ukrainian politicians are trying to derail the economic stability.
We call on MPs to stop political insinuations and join in efforts to implement financial sector reforms. The NBU urges MPs to pass beneficial laws that would bring more benefits than thousands of political slogans, dozens of rallies, and hundreds of political statements. Everyone should duly perform their duties.
Dear Ukrainians! Do not be deceived by manipulations. Let us demand that politicians do their jobs by passing critically important laws and that the shareholders of failed banks return funds to the depositors and the state.
There is no place for populism in the economy!