On 13–14 February 2025, a bilateral meeting with the European Commission was held in Brussels as part of the official screening of national legislation under Negotiating Chapter 9 Financial Services, which belongs to Cluster 2 Internal Market.
Such bilateral screening meetings are an integral part of the negotiation process of a country’s accession to the European Union. During such meetings, the candidate state presents an assessment of the harmonization of national laws to the EU acquis and plans for further implementation of EU laws.
Representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine took part in the meeting as members of the delegation. They were First Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova, Deputy Governors Sergiy Nikolaychuk and Oleksii Shaban, and Director of the Accounting Department Liudmyla Snihurska. In addition, the meeting was attended by Maksym Libanov, a member of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), and Olga Bilay, Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF).
The agenda included EU acquis in the following blocks:
- banking and financial conglomerates
- financial market infrastructure
- securities markets and investment services
- insurance
- sustainable finance
- digital finance.
“European integration remains an unwavering priority for Ukraine. Our European integration efforts create a favorable environment for the development of financial institutions in various segments of the financial market. This is critically important, as bringing Ukraine’s financial sector into line with EU standards increases its capacity and resilience, and lays the groundwork for further integration into the EU’s single financial market,” said Sergiy Nikolaychuk in his opening speech.
Kateryna Rozhkova told the colleagues from the European Commission about the implementation of EU legislation in Ukraine as regards capital requirements, supervision of financial conglomerates, insurance, including car insurance and insurance intermediaries, and mortgage lending.
She emphasized that the level of harmonization of the Ukrainian banking sector with EU rules is high. This primarily concerns capital requirements, organization of governance and internal control systems, reporting, etc.
“Thanks to recent reforms, primarily in the framework of integration with the EU, our financial sector has successfully withstood the crisis and demonstrated resilience in the face of russia's full-scale war against Ukraine,” said Kateryna Rozhkova. “In general, financial legislation in Ukraine is already based on EU legislation. In the banking sector, we have a fairly high rate of regulatory compliance with EU standards – more than 74% according to the results of self-assessment. And this figure will increase significantly taking into account the measures planned for the near future.”
Liudmyla Snigurska said that all insurers in Ukraine, regardless of ownership, assets size, and transactions volumes, are required to apply International Financial Reporting Standards to prepare their financial statements. Thus, in terms of the goal of ensuring transparency, comparability and harmonization of indicators, as well as taking into account the specifics of insurance activities in financial statements, the EU directive on the financial reporting of insurers (IAD, Insurance Accounting Directive) is considered to be substantially implemented based on the results of the self-assessment.
Sergiy Nikolaychuk and DGF Managing Director Olga Bilay spoke about the implementation of the EU acquis on recovering solvency and resolving insolvency of banks and about guaranteeing households’ deposits. Currently, Ukraine has partially implemented the provisions of the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD), but for full harmonization it is important to use the best European practices and experience in this area.
According to Oleksii Shaban, provisions of Ukrainian laws in the field of payments are also largely adapted to EU legislation. In particular, the Laws of Ukraine On Banks and Banking, On Payment Services, and On Financial Services are based on modern requirements and take into account the provisions of the EU acquis. At the same time, he said that Ukraine will continue to improve its legal framework, including in the field of payments. Among other things, it is planned to regulate a number of issues related to payment fees, access to payment accounts, etc.
In addition, in order to ensure the digital operational resilience of the Ukrainian financial sector, it is also planned to implement the requirements of the relevant EU act (DORA Regulation).
At the same time, Oleksii Shaban emphasized that Ukraine’s banking system remains resilient despite the constant air attacks on critical infrastructure. In particular, a significant role in this process is played by the POWER BANKING network of bank branches created at the initiative of the NBU. The branches are able to operate and provide the necessary services to clients even during blackouts. “These are about 2,400 branches of various banks across Ukraine that have backup power supply and communication channels, enhanced cash collection, additional staff, and a common system of business continuity protocols,” he said.
The Ukrainian side also presented the results and further steps of the financial sector regulators in preventing corruption. In particular, colleagues from the European Commission were familiarized with the successful experience of developing an ABMS (anti-bribery management system) at the NBU, which was recently confirmed by a certification audit of compliance with the international standard ISO 37001:2016 Anti-bribery Management Systems.
As a reminder, based on the results of bilateral screening meetings, the European Commission prepares screening reports to decide whether to open negotiations on the country’s accession to the EU in the relevant cluster.
The NBU is an active participant in Ukraine’s European integration processes and continues to modernize the financial sector in line with EU law.
Within the framework of the screening, the NBU is the coordinator of the work of government agencies and is responsible for holding meetings with the European Commission on Negotiating Chapters 4 Free Movement of Capital and 9 Financial Services, including the formation, coordination, and presentation of a common position of Ukraine to the European Commission.
The NBU is also involved as a co-executor in other negotiating chapters within its competence, primarily in Negotiating Chapters 17 Economic and Monetary Policy, 18 Statistics, 32 Financial Control, and the Economic Criteria area.