15:34 20.04.2015

Finance ministry stirs up talks on attracting EBRD, World Bank to Ukrgasbank's capital

2 min read
Finance ministry stirs up talks on attracting EBRD, World Bank to Ukrgasbank's capital

The Finance Ministry of Ukraine plans to stir up negotiations with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, and International Finance Corporation (IFC) on involving them in managing the capitalization of Ukrgasbank, First Deputy Finance Minister Ihor Umansky has said.

"We'd like to see both the European bank, the World Bank and maybe even [International] Finance Corporation in the bank's capital. Firstly, not for the sake of attracting capital, but for providing other quality of management processes and the possibilities of involving the bank [Ukrgasbank] in their programs in Ukraine," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

The first phase of cooperation with the above-mentioned financial institutions concerning Ukrgasbank is ensuring the transparent and public functioning of the bank, Umansky said, adding that a further prospective is the privatization of the state stake in the bank.

"However, this [privatization] is a prospect of five or seven years. The bank has to both prepare its position in the banking segment and provide for the proper management level," he said.

He said that Ukrgasbank's development strategy is to be approved by the Finance Ministry, and if it is required, by the Cabinet of Ministers, and he named the key tasks faced by the bank for the future.

"We see that the bank is first to become the main bank supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and energy efficiency measures," he said.

In turn, Ukrgasbank Board Chairman Kyrylo Shevchenko said that Ukrgasbank will work to increase its assets and liabilities thanks to the joining of other banks.

Ukrgasbank was created in 1993. The main shareholder of the bank as of early January 2015 was Ukraine's Ministry of Finance (92.9998%).

Ukrgasbank ranked 16th among 158 operating banks as of January 1, 2015, in terms of total assets worth UAH 21.028 billion, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.

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