IMF-required banking law won’t be voted on Monday, MPs say

People’s Servant MP Danylo Hetmantsev, the head of the
parliamentary finance committee, told Interfax-Ukraine on Apr. 10 that the
committee won’t be able to prepare for the Monday extraordinary session the
draft law on banking resolution. Recall, the bill, whose final approval is
required by the IMF (the so-called anti-Kolomoisky law), drew over 16,000 amendment proposals
for the second reading, an amount that is not easy to process. Hetmantsev said
the committee will work as fast as possible to prepare the bill for voting in
the second reading.

At the same time, finance committee MP Yaroslav
Zhelezniak of the Voice party hinted in his blog on Apr. 10 that the delay in
the banking law is not from the committee’s end. “So far, the coalition and the
president are not planning to bring a bill on banks to [Monday’s] special
session,” he wrote. “They say that possibly there will be another special
session next week, but what is preventing them from doing everything right
away?”

Alexander Paraschiy: If the
banking bill is approved by the end of April (which will allow Ukraine to count
on an IMF deal in early May), this will be extremely positive for Ukraine’s
debt sustainability. We will continue to monitor the progress of the bill’s
preparation for the second reading. So far, we expect its approval in one or
two weeks.