CAP Project Hosts Two-Day Conference on Opportunities, Challenges Presented by Ukraine’s New Law on Credit Unions
2023-11-21
Ewa Sierzynska, Chief of Party for the CAP Project, speaks to conference attendees
Olha Bilay
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More than 100 credit union representatives from different regions of Ukraine convened in Kyiv, November 16-17, to participate in a USAID/WOCCU Credit for Agriculture Producers (CAP) Project conference on how the country’s 2023 Law on Credit Unions will impact the sector moving forward.
Credit union professionals joined officials from the country’s national credit union associations, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) to discuss:
- the future architecture of credit union regulation.
- new reporting requirements.
- the concept of the future deposit guarantee system for credit unions.
- enforcement measures, early intervention and corrective measures in the non-bank financial services markets.
- risks and compliance in credit union operations.
“The Law of Ukraine on Credit Unions is not the finish line. This is the starting point for new changes. We would really like to see credit union members having payment cards issued by credit unions, and credit unions that maintain such accounts and receive income from payment services,” said Serhiy Savchuk, Director of the Department of Methodology for Nonbank Financial Institutions of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Credit union representatives last week also discussed and learned more about the ongoing process aimed at providing their members with deposit guarantees.
The CAP Project has been supporting the establishment of deposit guarantees for credit unions in Ukraine in collaboration with Deposit Guarantee Fund of Ukraine by providing technical assistance to amend the country’s Law on Deposit Guarantee Fund, making it possible for credit unions to join the system.
“The Deposit Guarantee Fund seeks to create such a system not only with regard to the requirements of the European law, but primarily because we want to create the equivalent protection for credit union depositors. Because they should have the same opportunities for protection as bank depositors,” said Olha Bilay, Deputy Managing Director of the Individuals’ Deposit Guarantee Fund.