Rada approves expedited review of IMF-required banking law

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted on Apr.
30 to approve an expedited procedure to review the draft amendments submitted
to the banking sector resolution legislation (the so-called anti-Kolomoisky
bill), its website reported. The initiative was supported by 255 MPs of the
needed 226-vote majority. Recall, MPs against the measure submitted more than
16,000 amendments to the draft legislation to delay its review, prompting their
opponents to draft the bill on expedited review.

The expedited procedure calls for the Rada’s finance
committee to draft the bill for the second reading to account for all the
amendments it sees necessary (about 230 amendments were approved), after which
each faction can propose five additional amendments, while non-faction MPs can
propose one additional amendment. So far, only one MP used her right to file an
additional amendment, according to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak of the finance
committee.

The banking bill will be approved by Rada in full in
the nearest future, President’s Office Head Andriy Yermak told an online press
conference on May 4, providing no exact date. Zhelezniak said he expects the
Rada will gather for voting for the bill in the next week.

Alexander Paraschiy: If the bill
is approved next week, it could become law in two weeks’ time. In this way, Ukraine
will implement its last homework on the way to a new IMF loan program. If the
government does not make any other moves that upset the IMF by that time (e.g.
encroaching upon the institutional independence of the National Anti-Corruption
Bureau, or the National Bank), there is a high chance that
Ukraine will receive the first IMF tranche under a new program (about USD 2
bln, based on the National Bank’s expectations) in the second half of May.