National Bank Puts Pressure on “Ukrposhta” — Smiliansky
27 March 17:08
Ihor Smilianskyi, CEO of Ukrposhta, has spoken out about pressure from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on the company and yet another attempt to block the creation of Ukrposhta Bank. He wrote about this on Telegram, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
Smiliansky noted that this is his personal opinion.
“Regarding the NBU’s fine against Ukrposhta. In short—this is pressure on the company, yet another attempt to block the creation of Ukrposhta Bank, and a violation of basic corporate governance principles,” he wrote.
Smiliansky considers the actions of the National Bank of Ukraine to be an attempt to exert pressure, as the bank imposed a fine of 255,000 UAH on Ukrposhta because the joint-stock company failed to submit the requested information to the NBU.
“Do you know who controls all the ‘dollars’ in the world? Who is the most powerful national bank in the world? It is the U.S. Central Bank or the Federal Reserve System. Do you know who controls all the ‘dollars’ in the world? Who is the most powerful national bank in the world? It is the U.S. Central Bank or the Federal Reserve System. So, they DO NOT have the right to approve members of the supervisory boards of U.S. banks such as JPMorgan, Citibank, etc. That is the shareholder’s right, because it is their money. But the NBU does,” Smiliansky wrote
According to Smiliansky, the NBU can influence appointments to the Supervisory Board of Ukrposhta.
“If, for example, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, wants to join the Supervisory Board of Ukrposhta tomorrow (to help us with parcels), but the NBU doesn’t like him—his appointment could be blocked. Just like that. Without clear criteria (well, for example, he hasn’t mastered the basics of financial monitoring in Ukraine),” Smiliansky wrote.
In Smiliansky’s view, “these powers of the NBU seemed insufficient”—the regulator “wants to control not only appointments but also the activities of members of the supervisory boards of banks and financial companies.”
This is being done through a requirement for the NBU to be provided with the agendas and minutes of supervisory boards, Smiliansky claims.
He asserts that “Ukrposhta” refused to do so on the basis of the law, as this violates the principles of corporate governance.
“The NBU imposed a fine on Ukrposhta to send a signal to everyone. And also to say that Ukrposhta shouldn’t be allowed to run a bank because ‘look at what lawbreakers they are,’ ‘their business reputation doesn’t meet the high standards of Ukrainian bank owners,’ and so on. Checkmate,” wrote the head of Ukrposhta.
According to him, the information was not provided to the regulator because the goal of corporate reform was to change the approach to managing large companies, not to create a “theater or performance” to portray these reforms.
“Supervisory boards were created as a body where strategic issues and problems of the company can be discussed openly and professionally, and an action plan formulated. Would you do this if all the details of the discussion were known to the regulator? Of course not,” he noted.
Smiliansky explained that according to the NBU’s position, upon receiving a fine, he, as CEO, must bring the matter before the supervisory board to discuss, in particular, the legal strategy (whether to go to court or not, what arguments to use, etc.).
“So, the NBU wants to receive the minutes of these discussions. It’s as if a prosecutor told a lawyer: ‘Go talk to your client here about the trial, and then bring me a detailed record of the discussion so I know how to prepare for court,’” Smiliansky wrote on Telegram.
He added that a competition for the positions of independent members of the supervisory board of “Ukrposhta” will be announced in the coming days and that a strong, independent, and not a “puppet” supervisory board is needed.
Earlier, JSC “Ukrposhta” stated that it had paid a 255,000 UAH fine imposed by the National Bank of Ukraine for failing to provide requested information, but that it would challenge the regulator’s decision in court.
The National Bank of Ukraine imposed a sanction on JSC “Ukrposhta”—a fine of 255,000 UAH—for violating Ukrainian legislation governing activities in the payment market, specifically for failing to provide the requested information to the NBU.
On January 28, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a decision to transfer the shares of PINbank—confiscated from the sanctioned Russian oligarch Giner—from the State Property Fund to the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development.
Ihor Smelyansky, head of Ukrposhta, wanted to acquire PINbank to establish a postal bank based on it. The NBU opposed this idea.
