IMF mission to review Ukraine's capital market development, regulation of virtual assets - NBU governor
MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - The International Monetary Fund plans to review matters on Ukraine developing the capital market infrastructure, strategically developing the mortgage market, and regulating virtual assets during the bank's mission on the seventh review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Arrangement, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andrei Pyshny said following the inaugural meeting with the mission that began work in Kiev on February 20, Ukrainian media reported, citing Pyshny's post on social media.
"The NBU has implemented the necessary structural beacons on time," Pyshny said.
Pyshny clarified that the first matter concerns a set of measures to establish a framework program for the financial recovery of banks in cooperation with the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the Finance Ministry, and the second matter concerns developing risk assessment methodology to determine the priorities of supervisory activities in relation to banks for 2025.
"We are counting on a week of successful discussions with the IMF experts. The result of successfully revising the program should be Ukraine receiving financing of around $917.5 million," the media quoted Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko as saying after a meeting with the mission members.
In addition, the IMF mission also met with the parliamentary budget committee, where it discussed the budget and international financing, the media quoted committee head Roksolana Pidlasa as saying.
Pidlasa said that the parliament is responsible for four structural beacons until the seventh revision, namely establishing the Supreme Administrative Court, abolishing Lozovoi amendments, adopting the law on the Accounting Chamber, as well as amending the Budget Code regarding reforming public investment management, with the last two having been implemented to date.
"The IMF continues to focus much attention on establishing the administrative court, and expects that the Verkhovna Rada will vote on it in the near future," she posted on social media.
Pidlasa also said that the use of $50 billion from the G7 was discussed separately. "Funds that cannot be used for defense needs must be stretched out over two years, as the prospects for financing the budget in 2026 are far from clear," she said.
She also said that the decision of the IMF Board of Directors on completing the revision and allocating funding is expected at the end of March.
As reported, the IMF Board of Directors approved the sixth review of the EFF program opened in March 2023 at the end of December and allocated its seventh tranche of $1.1 billion, which boosted payments to $9.8 billion, with a total program volume of $15.6 billion.
Upon the request of Ukraine, the program updated following the fifth review included amendments to the schedule of program reviews and tranches based on the results. The schedule for this year includes four quarterly reviews, as in 2024, after previously envisaging only two reviews for 2025, in early March and late August, with the allocation of tranches of $917.5 million based on the results.
The size of the eighth tranche following the seventh review in March remained at $917.5 million, while the size of the next three tranches is $809.6 million, $539.8 million and $445.3 million, respectively in 2025.
