NBU proposes to change the rules for disclosing banking secrecy: what could change for Ukrainians

The National Bank of Ukraine has submitted for public discussion a draft of amendments to the regulatory legal acts that regulate the procedure for disclosing banking secrecy, as well as the secrecy of payment service providers, financial and insurance secrecy.

As explained by the regulator, the main goal of the changes is to bring the current rules into line with the updated legislation and unify the mechanism for the NBU to obtain information with limited access from banks, financial companies, insurers and payment institutions.

One of the key innovations will be to expand the list of data that banks will be able to provide upon requests from state enforcement agencies and private enforcement agents. In particular, this concerns information on the validity period of bank deposits and the type of accounts of individuals, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.

The National Bank emphasizes that this should facilitate the procedure for imposing arrests on debtors’ funds, as well as ensure the correct collection of collection on deposit accounts – only after the expiration of the bank deposit agreement.

Separately, the NBU proposes to expand its own powers to obtain information containing banking, financial or insurance secrets. If previously such data was mainly requested during inspections or on-site supervision, then after the adoption of the changes, the regulator will be able to receive them at the stage of preparation for the inspection or in other cases necessary for the performance of supervisory functions.

The National Bank is convinced that this will increase the effectiveness of control over the financial sector, improve the quality of inspections and provide more substantiated conclusions based on the results of supervision.