A vote to override the Ukrainian president’s veto on amending the moratorium introduced last year on the seizure of property used as collateral for foreign currency-pegged credits returned 129 votes in favor, falling short of the required minimum of 300.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has also reported that lawmakers did not support the president’s proposal to reject the bill: only 14 lawmakers voted in favor.

Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva said in parliament that the law actually deprives creditors of the right to satisfy their legal claims via seizure of property of debtors. She said that the law is a threat to solvency of banks and the fulfillment of their liabilities to depositors.

Gontareva added that the law discriminates against borrowers who are fulfilling their liabilities to banks fairly.

Gontareva asked that the problems faced by borrowers be settled substantively and reminded that the conditions of the memorandum signed by Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foresees the NBU supporting voluntarily dialog between borrowers and banks on the conversion and restructuring of currency credits.

She said that the central bank is actively working on the creation of a mechanism to restructure currency credits, based on the principle of freedom of contract.