The Ukrainian parliament has passed a critical bank law outlawing the return of nationalized banks to their former owners. The law received the support of 270 lawmakers on May 13.
Passing the bank law was a central requirement for Ukraine to receive further financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The bank law was dubbed the “anti-Kolomoisky” bill after oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who has been attempting to regain control over Privatbank, Ukraine’s largest bank, which was nationalized in 2016.
The state alleges that, under the ownership of Kolomoisky and his business partner Hennadiy Boholyubov, a total of $5.5 billion was stolen from the bank through insider loans.
Today, state-owned Privatbank is suing Kolomoisky in Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Israel and Cyprus. Kolomoisky is counter-suing in Ukraine, accusing the state of raiding his property.
The process of adopting the bank law received broad coverage in the Ukrainian media, particularly after seven lawmakers linked to Kolomoisky proposed 16,000 amendments meant to stall the bill in parliament.
On April 16, the parliament adopted a new special procedure allowing lawmakers to vote on amendments in batches if the number of amendments to a single bill is over 500.
The law was meant to end the wide-spread practice of filibustering bills by registering thousands of amendments.
“If we don’t change the bylaws, the parliament’s work can be blocked (by amendments) until fall,” said Speaker Dmytro Razumkov, calling on lawmakers to support the changes.
The changes were used for the first time on the bank bill. That decreased the number of amendments to from over 16,000 to 241, fast-tracking the parliament’s work.
Passing the bank law is a central requirement for Ukraine to secure a much-needed loan program from the IMF. With the process taking months to move advance, the IMF shifted ongoing talks over further financial assistance to focus on an 18-month stand-by arrangement instead of the initially proposed $8-billion three-year program.
The new program is intended to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a televised briefing on May 7.
