The Government Regulated the Activities of Independent Financial Intermediaries

Today, on July 8th, the Government adopted a Resolution "Some issues of ensuring the activities of independent financial intermediaries", developed by the Ministry of Finance to implement the provision the Law of Ukraine "On the Common Transit Regime and Introduction of a National Electronic Transit System".

The resolution defines the criteria, standards and procedure for permitting an independent financial intermediary to conduct activities on the issuance of financial guarantees in order to ensure payment of customs debt.

Regulating the activities of independent financial intermediaries is another step towards establishing effective economic cooperation within the framework of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, in particular, facilitating business activities between Ukraine and EU countries on transit operations. Also, it is an additional tool for financial protection of the country from unscrupulous carriers and a guarantee of the revenues to the state budget.

Therefore, the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers "Some issues of ensuring the activities of independent financial intermediaries" approved the following: 

The procedure for granting a permit to an independent financial intermediary to conduct activities on the issuance of financial guarantees in order to ensure payment of customs debt, supervision and control over its compliance with the conditions of such permit, suspension or revocation of the permit;
-    Criteria of liquidity, profitability and quality of assets, standards of solvency and capital adequacy, riskiness of operations and quality of assets for an independent financial intermediary;
-    The procedure for forming by an independent financial intermediary reserves for reimbursement in full of possible expenses under the provided financial guarantees.

-    It should be noted that the permit to issue financial guarantees to ensure payment of the customs debt is issued by the State Customs Service at the request of a person applying for financial guarantor status, free of charge within 120 days from the date of registration of the application.

Background:

Article 29 of the Law "On the Common Transit Regime and Introduction of a National Electronic Transit System" provides, in particular, that the financial guarantor may be: financial institutions (banks, insurance companies) and independent financial intermediaries - legal entities established in the form of a full or limited partnership.

In order to obtain a permit to conduct financial guarantee activities, an independent financial intermediary must meet the conditions set out in parts two and three of Article 29 of the Law "On the Common Transit Regime and Introduction of a National Electronic Transit System".