The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), headed by Kyrylo Shevchenko, managed to preserve stability of the banking system and prevent destabilization of the situation, a "bank fall", devaluation of the hryvnia and serious inflation. The case opened by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) against him contains no convincing evidence of the guilt of the former head of the NBU and has no judicial prospect.
Financial analyst and economic expert Oleksii Kushch reported this in his blog on the Delovaya Stolitsa.
"The banking system remained stable, especially in the segment of systemic banks. We managed to avoid bankruptcy and the flight of depositors from banks, which in 2014-2015 cost Ukraine 25% of GDP. The banking system created a structural liquidity surplus and a core capital safety cushion, maintained operational functionality in wartime conditions, ensuring uninterrupted cash flow and transaction servicing. The state has not lost money in the form of problematic refinancing or irretrievable capitalization of the deposit guarantee fund," writes the expert.
According to him, resignation of Kyrylo Shevchenko was unexpected for market participants, since there are no claims to professionalism of the former head of the NBU. At the same time, the criminal prosecution of the banker looks inconclusive, since the facts incriminated by the NABU are not a violation of the law. The economist also recalled that activities of the state Ukrgasbank were repeatedly checked by international audit companies.
"Unfortunately, in Kyrylo Shevchenko’s case, the NABU demonstrated only certain facts of conducting operations in the state bank while the head of the NBU worked there as its head. These facts in themselves do not constitute a violation of the law, since the operations carried out were based on officially concluded contracts with full legal expertise. The bank itself was repeatedly checked by auditors and international donors, and none of them saw violations of the law,” stresses the economist.
Oleksii Kushch notes that the investigation hastened to give its emotionally colored interpretation of the events, forgetting about the presumption of innocence.
"The NABU provided some set of facts and its interpretation of them accompanied by negative connotations and evaluative judgments. Although the presumption of innocence indicates that only the court can interpret the facts on the basis of qualitatively collected evidence,” reads the column.
According to the financial analyst, the case opened by the NABU against Kyrylo Shevchenko, like many others before, has no judicial prospects.
"Unfortunately, many cases of the NABU never reached the court. The rate of useful action of anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine is extremely low. It is usually due to the tendency to effectiveness of accusations rather than effectiveness of investigations. In my opinion, this case has no judicial prospects, and I believe Kyrylo Shevchenko’s return to the Ukrainian banking system is quite real,” sums up Oleksii Kushch.
It is worth reminding that on October 4, Head of the National Bank Kyrylo Shevchenko resigned. On October 6, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau declared him a suspect in a case related to his work at Ukrgasbank. Law enforcement officials accuse Shevchenko of allegedly illegal actions at the post of Head of Ukrgasbank and inflicting damage in the amount of UAH 206 million.