Latest news with #NationalBankofUkraine
Arabian Post
11-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Ukraine Eyes Crypto Inclusion in National Reserves
Kyiv's parliament has introduced draft Bill 13356, empowering the National Bank of Ukraine to incorporate virtual assets—primarily Bitcoin—into its official gold and foreign-exchange reserves. The legislation would not compel the central bank to adopt such assets, but merely grant it the legal framework to do so. Lead author Yaroslav Zheleznyak, first deputy chair of the Rada's Finance Committee, highlighted that the bank would retain full discretion over timing, volume, and methodology of any crypto acquisitions. He described the measure as a pivotal move to 'integrate Ukraine into global financial innovations' and bolster macroeconomic resilience while catalysing the digital economy. Ukraine currently holds approximately 46,351 BTC—valued at over $5 billion—though these holdings originate from asset seizures, donations, and fundraising during wartime, and remain under civil-servant control rather than central-bank custody. If passed, the law would permit the bank to transition some of those coins into officially recognised reserves. ADVERTISEMENT The proposal mirrors a broader trend: several nations are charting similar initiatives. The United States launched a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under an executive order issued on 6 March by former President Trump, consolidating government‑owned cryptos into a national asset. Pakistan, Brazil and the Czech Republic are exploring mechanisms to incorporate digital assets into sovereign financial systems. El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, holds over 6,000 BTC, while Bhutan maintains mining‑powered reserves worth around $750 million. Yet the move is not without detractors. Critics emphasise Bitcoin's volatility, liquidity constraints and concentration within corporate entities like MicroStrategy, which undermine its suitability as a stable reserve asset. The Swiss National Bank's governor, Martin Schlegel, reaffirmed this stance on 25 April in Bern, warning that crypto lacks the stability and liquidity required for central‑bank reserve portfolios. ECB President Christine Lagarde has echoed similar concerns, stating that digital assets do not meet the criteria for eurozone reserve holdings. Proponents argue that strategic inclusion could buffer Ukraine against inflation and currency devaluation, offering rapid, secure transferability unmatched by physical assets. Zheleznyak's Telegram statement emphasised that implementation would be fully at the central bank's professional discretion. Operationalising the proposal will require establishing robust legal and procedural frameworks: anti‑money‑laundering protocols, cybersecurity safeguards, digital custody infrastructure, and accounting mechanisms. Banking analysts suggest that careful integration and risk management will be essential to balance innovation with financial stability. Ukraine's draft arrives amid growing global debate on digital money. Central bank digital currencies are being piloted worldwide, such as Turkey's digital lira, China's e‑renminbi, and Nigeria's e‑Naira. Meanwhile, debates continue over whether public‑sector balance sheets should venture into decentralised finance or maintain traditional gold‑forex portfolios. As parliamentarians prepare to debate Bill 13356, attention will turn to amendments that might specify asset types, risk parameters, and accounting standards—or narrow discretionary power for the central bank. The legislation must also align with IMF frameworks and comply with anti‑money‑laundering regulations.
Bloomberg
10-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Ukraine's Euro Cash Pile Grows With Increased EU Aid Flows
By Updated on The portion of Ukraine 's foreign reserves held in euros has surged as the European Union ratchets up support for the war-torn nation. Data from the National Bank of Ukraine shows that while the share of its international holdings denominated in euros remains low, the amount has more than quadrupled since the start of November — reaching 10% in early May. Over the same period, US dollar holdings fell by 6 percentage points to 82.9%, according to the statistics.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine requires $2.9bn for gas imports in 2025, National Bank reports
The National Bank of Ukraine has announced a requirement of $2.9bn (Hrv121.14bn) to fund gas imports in 2025, following significant damage to the country's gas production facilities by Russian missile and drone attacks, reported Reuters. The attacks, which occurred in late winter and early spring, targeted gas assets in eastern Ukraine, resulting in at least a 40% drop in production, although some capacity has since been restored. The bank's report indicates that while production is expected to gradually recover, it will not be enough to meet the domestic demands of the economy, including industry, utilities and households. The anticipated shortfall necessitates substantial gas imports, although the bank predicts that the need for purchases may decrease to around $1.1bn in 2026 and roughly $400m in 2027. In light of the situation, Ukraine's state oil and gas company, Naftogaz, is in discussions with the government and international financial institutions to secure $1.1bn to procure more than two billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas for the 2025/26 heating season. Naftogaz recently signed a new agreement with Polish energy company Orlen for the supply of an additional 100 million cubic metres (mcm) of natural gas. This marks the third deal under a long-term collaboration framework between the two entities, bringing the total US-sourced gas supplied to Ukraine to 300mcm. The specifics of this year's import volumes remain undisclosed, but the former head of the Ukrainian gas transit operator suggested that imports could reach up to 6.3bcm, as reserves are at a record low, the report said. Currently, Ukraine is importing up to 10mcm of gas daily, actively replenishing its storage facilities. "Ukraine requires $2.9bn for gas imports in 2025, National Bank reports" was originally created and published by Offshore Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine raises issue of Russian assets in talks with US Treasury, central bank chief says
Ukraine has urged the U.S. Treasury to find a mechanism to use $300 billion in frozen Russian assets for reconstruction and defense, Andriy Pyshnyy, head of the National Bank of Ukraine, said on April 24, Reuters reported. The Ukrainian delegation raised the issue with U.S. Treasury officials during negotiations on April 23, according to Reuters. Ukraine intends to continue lobbying for the initiative at an upcoming meeting with the International Monetary Fund, Pyshnyy said. 'Is there a mechanism to get access to these assets, to turn them into the source to cover the losses and damages of Ukraine and to fuel its resilience? The answer is very simple, yes,' Pyshnyy said at the 2025 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group. In October 2024, the Group of Seven (G7) approved nearly $50 billion in loans for Ukraine that will be repaid by interest generated from frozen Russian assets. On April 10, the European Union announced it would allocate €2.1 billion ($2.4 billion) in revenue generated from frozen Russian Central Bank assets to support Ukraine's defense industry. EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova said the funds would help provide air defenses and ammunition. Read also: US senators push Trump administration to seize Russian assets for Ukraine, Reuters reports We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Forbes
30-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Resilience In Financial Services: Learning From Ukraine
The economist John Kay once wrote that very little that happens in the finance sector has a genuine need for constant activity. If the stock market halts for a couple of days, so what? Only the most boring part of the financial system (to other people, not to me), which is payments, is "an essential utility on whose continuous functioning the modern economy depends'. So how can we learn from Ukraine make sure it is always there? What with recent geopolitical shifts, many people are beginning to think again about how that continuous functioning can be supported at manageable cost and so are looking at ways to add resilience to the payment systems on which the economy is wholly dependent. Sweden and Norway, for example, are rethinking their progress towards cashlessness because of their fears of Russian aggression. They are looking at how to ensure that cash remains in circulation and are telling their citizens to keep cash at home in case of emergencies. But is this the best strategy? It is worth listening to an actual expert about this. Hans Liwång, a professor of systems science for defense and security at the Swedish Defence University, said there was "a lack of evidence" about whether cash was better than electronic payments in the face of modern threats. The professor cited the natural example of Ukraine, where there are continuous attacks across both virtual and physical realms, to note that digital systems have proved vital to the country's resilience, saying that: 'Ukraine is a very good example of moving into the future when there is war rather than backwards'. What an interesting comment. Virtual and physical defences. © Helen Holmes (2021) This makes it important to explore the Ukrainian experience to learn about hardening the payment system by moving into the future. Central to the Ukrainian response was the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) recommending that stores, pharmacies and petrol stations give preference to cashless payments (which was vital because it reduced people's demand for cash) and ensuring the continued operation of the System of Electronic Payments (SEP), the ISO 20022 Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system for interbank payments that has handling more than 1.5 million payments per business day since the invasion. The NBU also organised the 'power banking' network of more than two thousand bank branches across Ukraine that can operate during a long-term blackouts. These branches have alternative energy sources, backup communication channels, enhanced cash collection capabilities and additional staff. (Resilience isn't only about money. Andriy Poddyerogin, Director of Payment Systems and Innovation Development at the NBU, noted also that the need to use tools for remote identification and verification. The largest public system for the remote identification of individuals in Ukraine, the NBU's BankID system, has been central to giving millions of people uninterrupted access to services under difficult circumstances.) Ukraine's largest acquirer is PrivatBank, which has around two-thirds of the market. Since the Russian invasion they have seen their POS estate climb by a third (their merchant service charge was reduced to zero immediately following the invasion to drive up merchant use) and their e-commerce customer base climb by a sixth. But most interesting of all (to me) they have seen their softPOS estate quadruple. When the power goes out, retailers switch to using their own mobile phones to take payments. (I've often wondered why retailers don't do that in the UK instead of shutting the supermarket doors when the POS network goes down.) Despite repeated blackouts, the POS network was up for 98% of the time in 2024 and a backup system of QR codes was introduced to continue purchases via customer handsets when the POS network was out. This offline ability has been very important in maintaining the Ukrainian economy and deserves attention. That point about supporting offline transactions is in my view critical to planning for truly resilient payments infrastructure. The Bank of Canada published a helpful note (Staff Analytical Note 2022-14) on what they called the 'archetypes" for a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in which they point out that a direct model — in which transacting parties directly provide their own oversight and communicate between themselves to exchange and record settlement information — is the only model that deliver cash-like person-to-person transactions, where counterparties can settle a transaction without involving a third party. The resilience of an electronic cash alternative is greatly enhanced by this kind of offline device-to-device transfer. There is no central system to take down, no switches to knock out, no network to paralyse and I am very optimistic about the ability of technology to deliver here. To explain why, let me begin by picking up something that John Kiff pointed out on the International Monetary Fund blog. John observed that almost all CBDC research projects and trials focus on online distributed ledger technology, whether it be Hyperledger Fabric in Nigeria or R3's Corda in Sweden. He then goes on to ask the obvious question: What will happen when communications go down in a war? What if there is a natural disaster? And what about the three-quarters of the world's adult low-income population that doesn't even have internet access? He concluded, as the Bank of Canada did (and I did long ago), that for a CBDC to be useful, it must work offline. And here, John says, the future of offline CBDCs may lie in the technological past. That's where his nod to a previous era and a push to develop offline digital payment systems using secure hardware rather than ledgers comes in. Some of the very valuable work done in this space goes back a generation, to that long ago time before smartphones, but it remains valid and it is important that the lessons learned then are not forgotten. In Europe, the digital euro is on the drawing board and will enter its 'second phase' of preparation in October of this year, by which time the ECB will have prepared an outreach plan, procurement standards and technology providers. More than a billion euros worth of contracts have been awarded and I cannot help but note that the budget for developing an offline solution accounts for some €662m out of contacts awarded, so clearly the priority is recognised at the highest levels. Last yeasr the Bank invited experts from across the mobile sector to explore the business and technical aspects of deploying the digital euro's offline functionality on embedded Secure Elements (eSE) and embedded SIMs (eSIM) in end-user devices. The key lesson from Ukraine, for me, is that the resilience of European retail payments depends on this offline capability, not using more physical cash but using offline central bank digital currency. In fact, I would go even further and say that there is no point in developing any central bank digital currency that does not work offline.
