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8.1.4 Bank news
Andriy Pyshnyi is the new governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and well connected in Zelenskiy’s circles.
With Zelenskiy’s government continuing to put pressure on the central bank to stretch its capacity to finance the war-battered budget, it’s not clear how Pyshnyi, a 47-year-old ally of the president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, will react. “This is the main problem and threat,” said Dmytro Boyarchuk, executive director of the economic-research company Case Ukraine in Kyiv.
After serving on Oschadbank’s board in the early 2000s, Pyshnyi began his political career when President Viktor Yushchenko appointed him deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council. He and his allies later joined forces with the political party that became the driving force of the so-called “Revolution of Dignity” that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
He resumed his banking career soon after, serving as Oschadbank’s chief executive officer until 2020. While Pyshnyi is a political and business veteran, he doesn’t have universal support among economists, some of whom said a candidate with more of a technical background would be a better fit. “The main monetary body should be governed by an economist, who understands macroeconomic processes, not by a business person like banker,” Boyarchuk said.
Former National Bank Governor and Ukrgasbank head Kyrylo Shevchenko has been declared wanted on suspicion of embezzling more than $5.4mn, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Shevchenko was informed about the suspicion at the beginning of October; since then, he has ignored calls to meet the investigators, NABU wrote. On October 4,
49 UKRAINE Country Report November 2022 www.intellinews.com