Bank to be liquidated
The State Land Bank will have its banking license withdrawn and enter liquidation following a decision by the National Bank of Ukraine on Sept. 27.
The state-owned bank was classified as problematic in March, after it was revealed that there was a conflict of interest within the bank. It was then declared insolvent on July 26 following its failure to address the problem to the satisfaction of the NBU.
Established in 2012 by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, its purpose was to provide lending support to the agriculture industry.
However, according to the NBU, “in the absence of amendments to laws and regulations, since being granted a banking license, the bank has hardly performed any of the banking activities prescribed by its by-laws.”
No individuals’ deposits have been placed with the bank, which means there will be no financial impact on the Deposit Guarantee Fund from the closure of the bank.
Moldova meat ban
Moldova banned imports of Ukrainian meat from Sept. 29 to prevent the spread of African swine flu. Moldova’s Cabinet of Ministers took the decision after Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip set out an action plan to counter the spread of the disease two days earlier.
The ban includes meat, animal by-products from animals susceptible to the flu, as well as raw materials used for animal feed.
African swine fever is deadly but only affects animals and not humans, according to the European Commission. The price paid by farmers has been heavy. Ukraine’s State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection said on Sept. 23 that local budgets could not cope with compensating farmers for their losses, and the burden should be carried by the state budget.
Ukraine has had 50 cases of African swine flu in 2016, and 40 cases in 2015, according to a report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.
The latest case was on Sept. 1, in the Kharkiv Oblast village of Babai, when a farmer found four dead pigs which later tested positive for the virus. The entire district has been put under quarantine until Oct. 12, according to the emergency situations committee at Kharkiv City Council. The quarantine zone includes everything within a three-kilometer radius of the farm, and the authorities will carry out a survey of every farm within a 20-kilometer radius.
Talks with Russia
Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said on Sept. 28 that he is ready for talks with Russia on Ukraine’s $3 billion debt to its neighbor. Danyliuk said this in response to questions about whether the talks would be held during the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington between Oct. 7-9. On Sept. 12, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said he plans to meet his counterpart in the United States, and is open to an out-of-court settlement.
Russia filed a suit against Ukraine at the High Court in London in February over Ukrainian bonds bought by Russia to bail out then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in December 2013.
Ukraine issued a moratorium on repayment to Russia in December because of Moscow’s refusal to accept the restructuring terms agreed by international creditors, according to Ukraine’s then Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
The talks set to take place this autumn are part of the “good faith” terms agreed by Ukraine with the IMF to receive the latest tranche of support from the international lender.
