Restrictions on early issue of funds from fixed deposits considered by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) as a measure to protect banks could be challenged in court by depositors, who would refer to the Civil Code, according to a partner of the Alliance law firm, Borys Teplov.
As reported, Viktor Kravets, NBU executive officer for payment
systems and settling payments, said that the NBU plans to protect banks
from early withdrawal of funds on fixed deposits via amending a
procedure for carrying out deposit transactions with legal entities and
individuals by Ukrainian banks.
Teplov told Interfax-Ukraine that Article 4 of the Civil Code says
that the code is the key act of civil legislation of Ukraine, which
regulates civil relations, and other laws and by-laws should be in line
with it.
He said that court would have all grounds to rule in favor of
depositors, if they refer to Article 1060 of the Civil Code, according
to which banks are obliged to return deposits on demand.
Teplov said that the requirement foreseen in the said article is of
imperative character, and other options are not foreseen and could be
considered as illegal.
He said that it is enough to prevent the collision by adding the
phrase “except for cases foreseen in the law under paragraph two of
Article 1060 of the Civil Code.”
Lesia Kovtun, a lawyer of Volkov Koziakov and Partners law firm,
told the agency that despite the fact that NBU’s initiative is not in
line with Article 1060 of the Civil Code, requirements of the law on
peculiarities of measures on financial readjustment of banks, to which
the NBU refers, indicate that other laws apply that are in line with
the law. Kovtun does not rule out that NBU’s proposals to restrict the
early withdrawal of deposits stipulated in a resolution would be take
priority over the requirement of the Civil Code.
She also said that NBU’s initiatives would apply to those banks at
which temporary administration have been introduced, and only in cases
foreseen in the law on banks and banking activities.
Roman Khrustenko, a lawyer and managing partner of the Ol&Rust
Law Firm, said that the NBU only plans to bring the requirements of the
resolution on deposit transactions in line with changes made by the law
on peculiarities of measures on financial readjustment of banks to the
law on banks and banking activities.
Commenting on a possible legal contradiction, Khrustenko said that
taking into account theory of law, the contradiction should be settled
in favor of special requirements, which are requirements of the law on
banks and banking activities, especially since the restrictions concern
special cases: the introduction of temporary administration or the
reorganization of banks.
As reported, the draft resolution, which has been posted on the
NBU’s Web site, foresees the introduction of restrictions to access to
deposits in cases stipulated in the law on banks.
An explanatory note to the draft says that amendments were drawn up
to bring the NBU’s regulatory base in line with the law on
peculiarities of banks’ financial readjustment. The law was adopted by
the parliament in July 2009 and targets the mitigation of a procedure
for the reorganization of banks and settling of the issue of
fulfillment of bank’s liabilities in the temporary administration
regime.
