"The Ministry of Finance has revised selection criteria for entitled banks to protect budget funds which are actually taxayers’ money", Deputy Minister of Finance Artem Shevalev

On Februar 8, 2016, Deputy Minister of Finance Artem Shevalev attended the round table event at the Ukrainian Banks Association «Role and place of state-owned banks in the banking system of Ukraine».

In his speech, the Deputy Minister of Finance explained the extraordinary importance of the development strategy for state-owned banks which is now being finalized by the working group at the Ministry of Finance. He also explained the reasons for the review of the criteria for the selection of entitled banks.

Due to the worsening situation in the banking sector and removal of a number of banks from the market, the state has lost significant funds deposited at insolvent banks in the last two years. This loss affected many citizens served by those banks, including pensioners, widows of the ATO soldiers, teachers and doctors who received their salaries from the State budget via those banks.

"This is why the Ministry of Finance initiated the review of the criteria for the selection of entitled banks which can be authorized to transfer salaries to employees at public institutions as well as social welfare payments. We want to protect budget funds which are actually taxayers’ money", Artem Shevalev said.

Based on the discussion which followed, the deputy Minister of Finance initiated a review for one of the criteria to entitle banks for the above transactions – this criterion referred to the number of payments cards to be emitted by the respective bank within the public payment processing system NSMEP. Currently, this criterion demands at least 10% of the total number of the payment cards issued by the respective bank to be compatible with the NSMEP. This criterion was to step into force in a year. According to Artem Shevalev, the above criterion was adopted upon proposal of the National Bank. However, later on the National Bank reviewed its necessity; the Ministry of Finance is now ready to discard it too.

«New criteria for the entitled banks aim to protect taxpayers’ money which are transferred as social welfare payments to the most vulnerable groups of citizens. At the same time, we have to set up fair and favorable conditions for the development of the banking system», Artem Shevalev said.