Legislative news digest: LEGAL HOTLINЕ 13.06.2019

Technical Regulation has been Brought into Conformity to the EU Standards
 

On 6 June, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine as to Implementation of the European Union Legal Acts on Technical Regulation”. Adoption of this document is the EU condition for the commencement of the official procedure for assessing Ukraine’s readiness to accede to the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products.

The Law “On Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment” has been supplemented with a clause on professional secret. It is defined as the confidential information received or created by the designated authorities assessing conformity in accordance with the corresponding technical regulations.

The designated authorities, their subcontractors and subsidiaries as well as staff thereof shall not disclose the information constituting professional secret of the designated authorities, without consent of the conformity assessment customer or the person such information is related to (except when such information is furnished as prescribed by the law), as well as not use such information for their own or third-party benefit.

In addition, the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights” has been supplemented with the requirements to notification of consumers of certain types of risk or products, the requirements to content of the product information, the manufacturer’s (seller’s) actions upon detection of inauthentic information on the products as well as removal of clauses on mandatory product certification with the national certification system.

Procedure for Imposing Sanctions on Banks Updated
 

In order to enhance protection of interests of bank depositors and other creditors, and in connection with introduction of additional requirements to banking, the National Bank has supplemented the grounds and procedure for imposing sanctions on banks.

The amendments have been made to the Regulations on Imposition of Sanctions by the National Bank of Ukraine approved by Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine No. 73 dated 29 May 2019, which entered into force on 1 June 2019.

The sanctions will be imposed if banks fail to comply with the introduced mandatory economic standard, liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), and with the requirements to the procedure for forming and keeping reserves for foreign exchange derivatives (forward and futures contracts).

In addition, the resolution introduces the rules, according to which the National Bank will be entitled to treat the actions that have been taken by the bank, but have not been provided by the bank’s action plan in written agreement, in order to implement this plan and to achieve the goals set.

The bank with certain restricted or suspended operations will be entitled to submit a motion for reducing the scope (list) of the restrictions to the National Bank of Ukraine.

National Digital Currency
 

The National Bank of Ukraine will consider issue of its own digital currency, e-hryvnia, to be used as an alternative to the existing retail payment means and instruments.

E-hryvnia may be regarded as an alternative to the existing retail payment means and instruments, i.e. to cash, payment orders, payment cards and e-money.

E-hryvnia may be introduced based on one of two alternative models of interaction of the participants: a centralised one or a decentralised one. According to the centralised model, the National Bank itself will issue e-hryvnia while the commercial market players will discharge service (agency) functions. If the decentralised model is applied, banks and non-bank financial institutions may be entitled to issue e-hryvnia under the supervision by the National Bank. At the same time, e-hryvnia issued by the commercial market players will not be defined as a digital currency of the central bank and will have the properties similar to e-money.

Cooperation and exchange of knowledge with central banks and international financial organisations as to digital currencies will be continued in the context of the global tendencies, and target e-hryvnia business models will be developed.

New Land Inventory Procedure
 

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Land Inventory Procedure in its Resolution No. 476 dated 5 June 2019. One should be guided by this document in land management and development of technical documentation on land management.

According to the Procedure, state land inventory is carried out by forming land plots regardless of ownership, determining area thereof and, where necessary, identifying such land plots as falling within certain categories to fill the State Land Cadastre with the corresponding information.

The land inventory objects are the territory of Ukraine, the administrative territories or parts thereof, agricultural lands, and individual land plots.

State land inventory will be procured by the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre or a territorial authority thereof by issuing the corresponding order.

For the purpose of land inventory, the customer and the contractor will enter into the agreement on development of technical documentation.