GROW Advocacy Success: National Bank of Ukraine Aligns Credit Union Regulations with Global Best Practices
USAID GROW Project’s advocacy leads to regulatory changes enabling increased lending capacity for small agricultural producers and rural businesses in Ukraine
January 14, 2025
KYIV, Ukraine—The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved amendments to align credit union regulations with the laws of Ukraine and global best practices. Adopted on December 27, 2024, under Resolution No. 177, these changes took effect on January 1, 2025.
The amendments, developed with support from the USAID GROW Project, introduce three key updates:
- Updated borrower classification criteria. The criteria for determining the classification of a borrower-credit union, applied by united credit unions, have been updated. The amendments introduce clearer and more straightforward measures for assessing the financial condition of credit unions to determine their classification, emphasizing compliance with prudential norms, timely fulfillment of obligations and adherence to enhanced auditing standards. This ensures a more tailored approach to borrower evaluation based on their financial condition, in line with European Union (EU) prudential regulations.
- Inclusion of guarantees from the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund in Agriculture. Guarantees from this Fund have been included as acceptable collateral. This measure reduces the overall credit risk for credit unions by offsetting it with guaranteed amounts, thereby enhancing lending capacity in agricultural financing.
- Revised approach to valuing off-balance-sheet obligations. The approach to valuing off-balance-sheet obligations for calculating capital standards has been revised. These changes will enable credit unions to expand their lending potential while striking a balance between compliance requirements and providing attractive products to their members.
The recent regulatory changes are the result of the efforts of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) GROW Project in Ukraine, and its partners representing the country's credit union market.
The USAID GROW Project played a crucial role in facilitating these regulatory advancements by collaborating with the NBU and other stakeholders. These changes align credit union regulations with the laws of Ukraine and global best practices, ensuring a more consistent regulatory framework that meets both national legal requirements and internationally recognized standards, and will increase funding opportunities for credit unions to better support their members.
This document was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by WOCCU for the USAID GROW Project in Ukraine, agreement number 72012124FA00001.
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World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is the apex association for credit unions and other global financial cooperatives. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.
World Council has implemented 300+ technical assistance programs in 90 countries. Worldwide, 74,634 credit unions in 104 countries serve 411 million people. Learn more about World Council's impact around the world at www.woccu.org.
Organization: World Council of Credit Unions
E-mail: gneumann@woccu.org
Phone: +1 608-395-2048
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