NBU fills vacant position of deputy governor

The Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)
approved on Aug. 7 the nomination of Oleksiy Shaban as NBU deputy governor, the
regulator’s website reported the same day. Before his appointment to the
position, Shaban was working as head of NBU’s payment systems department.
Before that, he was working for Privatbank, which is recognized as the most
efficient in Ukraine in terms of IT and payment systems. Recall, one out of the
five positions of deputy NBU head became vacant last week after the NBU Council dismissed deputy NBU governor Serhiy Kholod
at his request.

The NBU approves all its decisions with a simple
majority vote of its six executive board members (five deputy NBU governors and
the governor, whose vote is tie-breaking). After the new NBU governor, Kyrylo Shevchenko, was appointed in mid-July,
two deputy NBU heads have been replaced, meaning the three new NBU board
members now form a majority.

Alexander Paraschiy: Now that
Shevchenko has gained his majority on the NBU board, he can pursue his own
policy for the central bank, which may or may not differ from the policy
implemented before his appointment (which was considered by Ukraine’s
international partners to be independent from politics). The key indicators of
Shevchenko’s “independence” will be in monetary policy: how fast the NBU’s key
rate will react to expected intensification of inflationary pressure, and
whether the NBU will take a role in financing the state budget deficit. Firm
conclusions about the upholding of NBU policies and its unchanged independent
status can be reached only in 3-6 months, in our view, while the grounds for
the opposite conclusions can surface much faster.