For the first time since the 1998 crisis

rules of the game

Last week, the Verkhovna Rada adopted amendments to the law “On the circulation of bills of exchange in Ukraine,” allowing banks and the NBU to issue financial bills. These securities have not existed in Ukraine since 1998, when several pyramid schemes collapsed due to them during the Russian financial crisis. Now, according to deputies, the new instrument will allow the NBU to simplify the procedure for refinancing banks. Experts consider the revival of financial bills to be promising, noting the high level of regulation of bill of exchange law, and predict that a number of banks will specialize in working with new securities.

On Friday, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law “On Amendments to the Law 'On the National Bank'”, regulating the activities of the council and board of the NBU. 241 deputies voted for him. Let us remind you that on Thursday the deputies were unable to override the president’s veto and decided to finalize the law. However, the presidential proposals were again not taken into account in the document adopted on Friday. As parliamentarians told Kommersant, the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada made amendments to the document “by telephone.” “The law was changed at night,” deputy Stanislav Arzhevitin (Our Ukraine) told Kommersant. “There was no meeting, voting took place by polling deputies.” According to political scientists, the urgency of preparing the law is explained by the election of the head of the NBU council scheduled for Friday (see material on pages 1, 7). The latest version of the law provides for amendments to the law “On the circulation of bills of exchange in Ukraine”, allowing the NBU and banks to issue financial bills.

Let us recall that until now business entities could only issue “trade bills” secured by the actual delivery of goods. Now, according to the law, “promissory notes will be issued, the issuance of which is associated with the registration of a monetary debt without the actual delivery of goods, performance of work, provision of services (financial bills) only by banks.” The circulation of financial bills is limited to the “banking system of Ukraine”.

As bankers told Kommersant, the use of financial bills in Ukraine was banned ten years ago due to the economic and financial crisis. “Naturally, bankers were against this ban,” one of the experts told Kommersant. “In Russia, such bills were very common, but in 1998 several banks that actively worked with them collapsed. Therefore, our legislators decided that it was better to ban than to control ". Bankers recall that the reason for the ban on such bills in 1998 was the creation of financial pyramids, when the company that issued the bill was declared bankrupt after a while and the bank that bought the bill through several intermediaries could not make a claim to anyone after a year. In Russia, the Central Bank, accepting financial bills, issued stabilization loans to banks. However, the debt accumulated by 1998 in the amount of $724 million was largely irrecoverable. But this did not prevent Russia from maintaining the validity of financial bills.

Ukrainian legislators believe that the current economic and regulatory situation in the country will make it possible to avoid the emergence of pyramids. According to them, the National Bank came up with the initiative for such changes. “This is an additional tool for the National Bank to implement a simplified refinancing procedure,” said Stanislav Arzhevitin. “In addition, the NBU will be able to transfer these obligations to another bank. Now the bill will have a narrow circle of circulation.”

At the same time, banks will be able to exchange bills not only with the NBU, but also among themselves. “This is an additional tool for the market that will allow banks and clients to structure financial transactions,” says Dmitry Zolotko, treasurer of NRB Bank. “When something is allowed, it’s always good.” According to experts, the introduction of financial bills will expand the market. “Previously, hryvnia certificates were used as collateral or payment, but this can also be done with the help of a bill,” explained Dmitry Reznichenko, deputy head of the treasury of Nadra Bank. “Bill law is more standardized and strictly regulated.”

Market participants note the prospects of using financial bills, and therefore predict that “two or three banks” may begin to deal with them on a specialized basis. “Based on past experience, it is obvious that large banks will use bills of exchange as an interesting source of raising funds,” the head of the securities department of one of the banks is confident. “Perhaps individual banks will specialize in bills of exchange, and then by the end of this year the market volume will amount to billions of hryvnias.” ".

RUSLAN Kommersant-CHERNY, ELENA Kommersant-GUBAR

The bankers got their bills back