Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) will work closely with the Ukrainian counterpart, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), having signed a cooperation agreement for long-term collaboration on all relevant aspects of financial supervision.
The NSSMC supervises investment firms, trading venues, pension funds and their management companies, as well as central securities depositories, central counterparties and other financial markets companies.
“We want to provide support to the Ukrainian supervisory authority, and share our experiences within the EU legal framework. It is just as important for us to learn from our colleagues there,” said Rupert Schaefer, executive director of strategy, policy and control at BaFin.
The first step into the cooperation agreement was a joint online workshop on the topic of virtual assets and operational supervision. A legislative process is currently underway in Ukraine on crypto assets, while in the European Union the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR) came into force last year.
The NSSMC drafted a new law on virtual assets, with the support of Ernst & Young and USAID Financial Sector Reform project, a programme to reform Ukraine’s financial sector in line with European and international standards.
The draft law was sent for approval to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Justice, the State Financial Monitoring Service, and the National Bank of Ukraine, according to NSSMC.
The cooperation between the two supervisory authorities comes after the joint declaration of intent signed by the German and Ukrainian finance ministries last year, to exchange know-how and experiences, preparing Ukraine for the post-war reconstruction phase to “build back better”, according to the document.
Under the agreement, BaFin will support NSSMC with advisory services in the field of financial supervision, including public sector banks. Teams of advisers coordinated by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the German state development bank, will provide consulting on public investment management, it added.
The German government has held previous discussions with the Ukrainian government planning to reform its pension system.
A webinar on pension reforms took place in mid-November last year with representatives of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), the World Bank, representative of the German first pillar pension system manager Deutsche Rentenversicherung, and Ukraine, IPE has learnt.
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