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board members (including introducing the notion of collective suitability of the supervisory board). Although approval of these two laws in full is very likely in the next few weeks, that won’t be enough for Ukraine to meet all the structural benchmarks and address new outstanding issues that are necessary for a smooth review of the program by the IMF.
Mortgages, long a rarity in Ukraine, doubled to $50mn during this first quarter of 2021, compared to January-March of last year, reports the National Bank of Ukraine. The Central Bank has reported that the number of new mortgages increased by 51% y/y, to 1,811. Most mortgages are for dachas with primary residences can be offered as collateral.
Ukraine’s post office Ukrposhta will shut down all terminals of third-party banks in its branches and will open a hotline for clients who do not want to receive pensions and subsidies in banks in protest of a government move to force all Ukraine’s pensioners to open bank accounts, CEO of Ukrposhta Igor Smelyansky wrote on his Facebook page May 19.
Smelyansky is angry as Ukrposhta has been trying to set up a European style post bank and was promised on April 30 at a meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal that the transition to receiving pensions on bank cards would be voluntary.
The ministry was trying to limit pension payments to the banking system and cut Ukrposhta out of the loop. The pension payment business avails banks that do it to massive amounts of cash and is a sought after business in all countries. Post office banks traditionally have played a dominate role in dishing out pensions as they usually have offices all over the country whereas banks limit their branches to larger settlements as is the case in Ukraine.
Ukrposhta will also create a hotline for clients who are forced to open bank accounts and, after collecting information, plans to file a class action lawsuit against officials who violate the Constitution and the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Anyone who is forced to go to a bank to receive pensions and subsidies can contact the Ukrposhta hotline.
8.1.4 Bank news
Fighting for the business of Ukraine’s 12mn pensioners, Igor Smelyansky, CEO of Ukrposhta, disconnected all third party ATM machines in Ukraine’s 11,000 post offices on May 19. He wrote on Facebook that he is protesting a decision by the Pension Fund to force pensioners to open bank accounts. Smelyansky said this will cause needless hardships “especially in 96% of settlements in Ukraine where there are no banks.” Banks in Ukraine are closing branches because digital banking has a lower overhead and is more profitable.
Less than one year after receiving banking rights, Ukrposhta increasingly looks like a European-style postal savings bank. Now Ukraine's seventh largest purchaser of point of sale terminals, Ukrposhta has brought electronic banking to 3,200 branches, largely concentrated in villages of around 2,000 people. In the first quarter of this year, Ukrposhta customers used the cash withdrawal service 207,000 times, withdrawing an average of $50. Two weeks ago, the post office raised its limit on withdrawals to $535.
51 UKRAINE Country Report XXXX 2018 www.intellinews.com