NBU proposes allowing small banks to merge without competition agency's permit

"The legislative initiative of the NBU to relax the bank consolidation procedures provides for the possibility of not applying for a permit to the Antimonopoly Committee to merge for small and medium-sized banks, which market share does not exceed 0.5-1% of the market, which considerably mitigates the process," he said. Rashkovan said that the concentration of the banking sector is moderate, and merger or acquisition of small and medium-sized banks would not affect competition on the market. In turn, Deputy NBU Governor Dmytro Solohub pointed at the influence of monopoly and oligopolistic market structures on the prices in the country and the necessity of exchanging the analytical information on the issue with the committee. He said that the central bank is monitoring prices using the web-scraping method, which allows quickly finding abnormalities on commodity and geographic markets. According to the report, at the meeting NBU Governor Valeriya Gontareva stressed the importance of increasing competition on the banking and non-banking markets, as well as on the adjacent professional service markets (appraisal, ranking and audit).Representative of the central bank discussed the creation of artificial monopolies when banks are selected for salary projects of state-run companies. Criteria for selecting banks to work with the Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund, Pension Fund and specifics of operation of banks with insurance companies were discussed. The NBU and the Antimonopoly Committee plan to invite top managers of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine to the next meeting to create a common strategy for transfer pricing and deoffshorization of Ukrainian business.