23 May 2023 10:22

NBU depository working with Clearstream, Poland's KDPW to enable non-residents' access to post-crisis recovery financial instruments

MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - The depository of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) took steps throughout 2022 to expand cooperation with the Clearstream Banking S.A international securities depository in order to facilitate foreign investors' access to securities that will be issued to finance post-crisis recovery projects in Ukraine, Ukrainian media said, citing the NBU's annual report.

The NBU depository has also started to actively cooperate with Poland's central securities depository - Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartościowych (KDPW), the bank said.

"Cooperation between the depositories is aimed at opening access for Polish capital market players to Ukrainian crisis financial instruments, and to post-crisis recovery financial instruments in the future," it said.

When commenting on cooperation with Clearstream, the NBU said that in light of the risks generated by the crisis, a hryvnia-denominated account was promptly opened at Clearstream, which became an additional mechanism of ensuring the reliable servicing of corporation operations by the government bond issuer and helped minimize operational risks for investors from across the world. Last year, the NBU added PJSC Ukrainian Financial Housing Company to the list of depositors permitted to have a securities account at the National Bank if they act as a depository, it said. As a result, Ukrainian Financial Housing Company was enabled to effectively manage government bonds in the event of their use as a guarantee during refinancing by banks as part of the mortgage program.

For the purpose of maintaining banks' refinancing operations as part of their use of standards instruments to regulate the banking system's liquidity, the NBU depository in 2022 opened securities accounts for all banks which did not have such accounts, the bank said.