Ukraine central bank acting head to be nominated for job, media report

Yakiv Smoliy, the acting head of National Bank of
Ukraine (NBU), is the president’s most likely nominee for the permanent post,
the ukranews.com news agency reported on Sept. 29, citing several anonymous
sources in government executive bodies. Another possible nominee, the CEO of
Raiffeisen Bank Aval Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, won’t secure enough support in the
Ukrainian parliament, according to a source sited by ukranews.com. 

As procedure, the NBU head is nominated by Ukraine’s
president and approved by parliament with a simple majority. The current NBU
head, Valeriya Gontareva, announced her resignation on April 10. As of early
May, she has left her position, being officially on vacation. Smoliy has been
running the NBU since then.

Among the other candidates to head the NBU cited by
Ukraine’s mass media are NBU Council Head Bohdan Danylyshyn, the head of
Ukraine’s Independent Banks Association Roman Shpek, the CEO of Ukreximbank
Oleksandr Hrytsenko and deputy head of NBU Kateryna Rozhkova.

Alexander Paraschiy: Smoliy is
indeed a straightforward candidate for NBU head, and his approval by parliament
is very likely if the president nominates him. But we do not rule out the
possibility of some other nominees, particularly because the president has been
delaying the nomination for almost five months. Indeed, if the president wanted
to nominate Smoliy, he could have done it in May or June. On the other hand,
such a delay is not something unusual for Poroshenko. Acting heads now run two
ministries and at least 12 other top executive/regulatory bodies, including the
NBU, State Property Fund and State Fiscal Service.