Legal Hotline | Digest of the main legislative changes in Ukraine 02.12.2021

Insurance Act is adopted

Recently, the National Bank has identified the updating of the outdated legislation on insurance, which does not meet either the needs of consumers of these services or the needs of market participants, as one of its priorities. In its turn, on November 18, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada approved a new version of the Insurance Act.

The new Act changes a whole range of requirements for licensing the insurers, assessing their solvency and liquidity, corporate governance and risk management, termination of their activities, and so on.

The Act sets new requirements for insurers who want to enter the market. The following requirements for insurers deserve special attention.

First of all, insurers should have transparent ownership structures and disclose information about all qualifying shareholders and key participants of the company. Founders and qualifying shareholders are required to have an impeccable business reputation, as well as a satisfactory financial and property condition. The National Bank will carry out mandatory approval of the qualifying shareholders.

Second, during registration, insurance companies will have to provide three-year activity plans.

Third, requirements for the company’s corporate governance system have been introduced. They will be proportional, i.e. they will depend on the level of the company (more requirements are provided for larger institutions).

Fourth, the Act establishes a differentiated approach to the minimum size of the authorized capital of insurers.

Another important innovation is that the new Act allows insurance companies to obtain one license instead of a whole series for each type of services. The insurance company will also be able to change the scope of the license – add new classes or, conversely, narrow the scope of the license.

Administrative Procedure Act is adopted

On November 16, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada approved in the second reading the draft Administrative Procedure Act proposed by the Ministry of Justice.

Please note that this Act provides for the following:

• establishing requirements for the form and content of administrative acts and rules for their entry into force;
• determination of the procedure for appealing administrative acts extrajudicially;
• obligations of administrative authorities to justify decisions taken;
• granting participants in administrative legal relations the essential procedural rights (the right of each person to access the case materials in relation to him/her, the right to be heard before any decision is made, the right to provide evidence for the correct resolution of the case, etc.).

With the adoption of the Act, it is assumed that services for citizens and legal entities will be provided according to uniform and understandable rules.

Public Electronic Registers Act is adopted

On November 18, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Public Electronic Registers Act, which aims to improve the public electronic registers in Ukraine.

The Act introduces the concept of “basic registers”. They will contain basic information about Ukrainians. For example, the Unified Demographic Register will be the primary source of information about a person. The registers will be interconnected, and therefore it will no longer be necessary to bring photocopies or certificates to different state authorities, since the exchange of information will be carried out in electronic form. Thus, the information will not be duplicated in different state registers.

Mediation Act is adopted

On November 16, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Mediation Act, which aims to relieve the national judicial system.

The Act defines mediation as an extrajudicial, voluntary, confidential, structured procedure within which the parties seek to prevent or resolve a conflict through negotiation with the assistance of a mediator.

It should be noted that the legislator extended the Act not only to private law disputes (civil, labor, family, commercial, etc.) but also to administrative disputes, cases of administrative offenses, and even to criminal proceedings (at the pre-trial investigation stage).

At the same time, mediation is allowed both before applying to the court (arbitration tribunal, international commercial arbitration) and at any stage of adjudication of a case or enforcement of the judgment.

To ensure the possibility of resolving a dispute through mediation, the Act provides for consistent amendments to a number of legislative acts, including procedural codes, the Labor Code, the Land Code, etc.