Ukrainian parliament passes bill on enhancing powers of national capital market regulator
MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on Thursday approved as a whole the bill No. 5865 on reforming the operations of financial markets and the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, first deputy head of the Ukrainian parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said.
"I and a bunch of people spent over 300 hours on working groups on this law [...] and finally after three years it is passed [...]. The first of three laws in the World Bank has been passed. Two more are left," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying on social media.
Zheleznyak noted that while considering the document two amendments on the increase in salaries and on the conflict of interest were declined.
According to the explanatory note to the bill, its aim is to build on the domestic capital markets and organized commodity markets an effective system of regulation, supervision and prevention of abuse in line with the principles of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and other international practices, as well as to address the protection of investors from abuses on the capital markets.
The bill stipulates improving institutional capacity of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission as a national regulator of capital markets and organized commodity markets and expanding its powers, formalizing guarantees of the Commission's independence, including the financial one, in the legislation, improving the legislative regulations on the Commission's international cooperation, building an effective system of supervision on capital markets and organized commodity markets in line with the IOSCO principle in order to ensure the functioning of an effective system of preventing abuses.
The document also stipulates the introduction of effective mechanisms to prevent manipulations, insider trading, illegal use of insider information and other abuses on capital markets and organized commodity markets, in particular, the prohibition of financial pyramids and measures to curb attempts to set them up.
Annual regulatory fees charged from current professional market participants are proposed in order to reinforce the National Securities and Stock Market Commission's financial independence. The fee for registering an issue may amount to 25 subsistence minimums, for admission of foreign securities to be five subsistence minimums, and for the approval of candidates for the heads of professional market participants - 27.
Ukraine's new program with the International Monetary Fund, which was approved at the end of March 2023, contains an article on bringing the rules of the securities market in compliance with international standards.