Ukraine: transparency of banks’ ownership to improve

Ukraine

On 8 September 2011, the National Bank of Ukraine (the “NBU”) adopted Resolution No. 306 “On the Approval of Several Legislative Acts of the National Bank of Ukraine” (the “Resolution”), which became effective on 7 November 2011.

Pursuant to the Resolution, by 1 December 2011, the owners of a substantial participation in a Ukrainian bank must submit to the relevant Ukrainian bank information on their ownership structure*. In turn, by 17 December 2011, each bank must then submit to the NBU the information on its ownership structure and the information obtained from the owners of a substantial participation**. Going forward, banks will be obliged, on an annual basis, to provide the information on their ownership structure to the NBU by 1 February. The scope of information that is reportable (including а model ownership structure chart) is defined in the Regulation “On the Procedure for Submission of the Information on the Ownership Structure” (the “Regulation”) approved by the Resolution.

The information on ownership structure must also be published on the official web-site of the bank and must be kept updated.

The goal of the Regulation is to make the ownership structures in Ukrainian banks transparent. Information disclosed to the NBU and published on the bank’s web-site should make it possible to determine all legal entities and individuals that have direct and/or indirect substantial participation in a bank and controlling relationships among them.

The Resolution has also approved a new Regulation “On the Procedure for Banks Registration and Licensing, Opening of Separate Units” which provides for the detailed steps for banks’ licensing and registration.

* "Substantial participation" in this context means: direct and/or indirect ownership solely or jointly of 10, 25, 50 and 75 and more percent of: (i) the bank’s charter capital; or (ii) voting shares in the charter capital; and/or substantial influence on the bank’s management or activities regardless of the formal ownership.

** The relevant submission forms are available at CMS upon request

Law: Resolution No. 306 “On the Approval of Several Legislative Acts of the National Bank of Ukraine”, dated 8 September 2011.