You're reading: World Bank to issue $500 million to support Ukraine’s banking system

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved a $500 million operation to finance the First Programmatic Financial Sector Development Policy Loan in Ukraine to support a program of high-priority reform measures in the country's banking sector, reads a bank press release.

“The package of reforms supported by this operation will help improve the performance of Ukraine’s banking system and its resilience to both domestic and external risks,” said Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.

“We are helping the Ukrainian authorities to implement an urgent set of measures aimed at returning the country to a sustainable growth path. Maintaining efficient and stable operations of the banking system is a critical part of this reform agenda, which the World Bank will continue to support through this loan and other instruments,” he said.

In particular, reform measures supported by this loan – the first in a series of two – will strengthen the financial, operational, and regulatory capacity of the Individuals’ Deposit Guarantee Fund for the resolution of insolvent banks. At the same time, the operation will support efforts to improve the solvency of the banking system through independent diagnostic assessments of the largest 35 banks in the country. Finally, this operation will assist the authorities in strengthening the supervisory framework to make the banking sector more efficient, transparent, and resilient, reads the document.

This operation is part of the World Bank Group’s broader crisis-response support package announced in March this year, which aims to provide Ukraine with up to $3.5 billion by the end of 2014.

The World Bank is a major development partner of Ukraine. With this new investment, the bank’s active lending portfolio will amount to $4.19 billion through 12 operations in the country. Since Ukraine joined the World Bank in 1992, the bank’s commitments to the country have totaled over $9 billion for 45 projects and programs.