Law digest

Credit Registry

The National Bank of Ukraine will be able to obtain information from banks and the Deposit Guarantee Fund about borrowers and to provide information from the credit registry to banks and credit history bureaus.

The corresponding Law On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Establishment and Maintenance of the Credit Register of the National Bank of Ukraine and Improvement of Credit Risk Management Processes for Banks (Draft Law No.7114-d) was adopted with technical and legal amendments by the Ukrainian Parliament on 6 February.

It envisages that a bank shall submit the following information to the credit registry:

i) data identifying the debtor; ii) information on credit transaction terms and fulfillment of obligations under a credit transaction; iii) information whether the debtor is one of the bank’s affiliated persons; iv) information on ensuring fulfillment of obligations under the credit transaction, including surety commitment (date of conclusion of agreement on ensuring fulfillment of obligations, type of security); v) other information on the debtor — legal entity (type of economic activity of the debtor, belonging to a group of legal entities, belonging to a group of affiliated counterparties, data identifying owners, to whom 10% or more of the charter capital of a legal entity belong, etc.).

It is established that the NBU gives banks access to credit registry information on credit transactions of a debtor, whose total debt to one bank (principal amount and interest), according to the credit registry, equals or exceeds 100 minimum monthly wages (or equivalent of this amount in foreign currency at the NBU official rate, set as of the first business day of the month following the reporting month).

The Deposit Guarantee Fund shall be obliged to provide information for the register on credit transactions of banks withdrawn from the market.

The borrower, whose information is included in the register, will have the right to access it; will be able to demand introduction of changes to such information in case of disagreement with its content. The NBU will be obliged to provide the borrower with information about it and to take measures to correct misleading information held by banks.

At the same time, banks will be obliged to: i) provide information for the credit registry; ii) notify the client that information about it will be sent to the register (information can be corrected in the event of a well-reasoned appeal from a borrower).

Moreover, the issue of continuity of updating information on loan agreements in case of assignment of the right to claim thereto has been resolved.

Approval of land management outside settlements

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a regulation depriving structures belonging to the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre of the right to take decisions on the disposal of lands outside settlements at their sole authority, without the consent of amalgamated territorial communities.

The problem issue was that the amalgamated territorial communities manage their territory only within settlements, and beyond them land is under the state control. The heads of amalgamated communities raised the issue on transferring the land under the management of the communities completely, discussions are still being held in the Ukrainian Parliament on this issue. Therefore, the Government decided to resolve the issue by adopting the Regulation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Improved procedures for supervision over registration of shareholders and participation in general meeting

The National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NSCRM) improved the procedure of supervision over the registration of shareholders for participation in a general meeting of joint-stock companies.

The supervision procedure is brought into compliance with the requirements of legislation as well as due to termination (reorganization) of the territorial bodies of the NSCRM, in particular: i) the grounds necessary to make an informed decision on appointment of the Commission representatives were set; ii) issues to be verified by the Supervisory Commission representatives were determined; iii) the procedure for receiving and reviewing complaints regarding supervision over registration was regulated; iv) a new procedure for registering supervision results was established; v) the list of documents to be attached to the Supervision Report was specified; vi) the procedure was defined for providing information on the results of conducted supervision to a joint-stock company and third parties.

Banks to disclose more information

The National Bank of Ukraine reports that it continues its work on increasing the transparency of the banking system. To that effect, it was decided to expand the list of data on the financial status of banks, subject to disclosure on the regulator's website and Internet pages of Ukrainian commercial banks. The Resolution On Establishment of the List of Information Subject to Mandatory Publication by Banks of Ukraine came into force on 21 February 2018.

Currently, information on standards is published for the banking system as a whole. The first publication of this data in the context of individual banks will reveal indicators for February 2018. Information on these indicators is also published by banks on their own websites every month.

Also, on their own web-sites, banks will start publishing balance lists, information on the structure of the credit portfolio in terms of types of economic activity, as well as data on the quality of the credit portfolio.

Information on distribution of credits granted to individuals and legal entities by debtor classification for the reporting month should be published before the 25th day of the month following the reporting one, for December — before 1 February of the following year.

Data on the structure of credits to business entities by types of economic activity is published annually by 1 February of the year following the reporting one.