REUTERS
The National Bank of Ukraine over the past six months has conducted 362 inspections of foreign exchange offices of non-banking financial institutions, planning by the end of the year to have covered the entire territory of Ukraine, as reported on the NBU website.
"The purpose of the National Bank is to identify systemic violations in the operations of the non-banking financial institutions across Ukraine and help them eliminate the shortcomings revealed. In most cases, this is exactly what happens. However, sometimes the reaction of the owners of forex offices to the NBU audits is puzzling. Having learned about the upcoming inspection, some of them suspend operations, which suggests that they seek to hide some serious violations," said the director of the financial monitoring department at the NBU, Ihor Bereza.
Read alsoUkraine budget revenues grow by 15.3% in 2016 – NBUThe National Bank said that as of January 1, 30 non-banking financial institutions and Ukrposhta were licensed to carry out foreign exchange operations.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Bank during its inspections in Kyiv revealed 39 illegal foreign exchange offices. Law enforcers have been notified accordingly. Subsequently, 18 of the illegal offices revealed were registered as legal units of the following companies Iks, Smart Finexpert, Finod, Liberty Finance, and Alfa-Invest Group.
In 2016, experts estimated the monthly volume of Ukraine’s shadow forex market at $1 billion, which they believe creates additional devaluation pressure on the hryvnia and complicates the work of the official foreign exchange market.