USAID FINANCIAL SECTOR TRANSFORMATION PROJECT FY 2017 THIRD QUARTER REPORT April – June 2017 Contract Number: EEM-E-00-00002-00/AID-121-BC-17-00001 COR/USAID Ukraine: Natalia Berezhna Chief of Party: Robert Bond Submitted by: DAI Global LLC July 25, 2017 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................... 3 II. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION RISKS ....................................................................................... 5 III. MONITORING AND EVALUATION REPORT SUMMARY .............................................................. 6 IV. PROGRESS BY WORK PLAN ACTIVITY AREAS ....................................................................... 8 A. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR ....................................................................... 8 B. CAPITAL AND COMMODITY MARKETS ........................................................................................ 13 C. NBFI DEVELOPMENT (ACCESS TO FINANCE) ........................................................................... 15 D. DIGITAL FINANCE ....................................................................................................................... 19 E. PENSION REFORM ..................................................................................................................... 21 V. ADMINISTRATION / PROGRAM ISSUES AND LOOKING AHEAD ................................................. 24 A. ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES ........................................................................................................... 24 B. MAJOR ACTIVITIES PLANNED FOR FY17-Q3 ........................................................................... 24 VII. ANNEXES....................................................................................................................... 25 2 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY During Quarter 3, the USAID Financial Sector Transformation (FST) Project transitioned from its mobilization and assessment phase to implementation. The Project completed and submitted all required financial sector assessments (Financial Intermediation, Digital Finance, Legal and Regulatory Harmonization, Pension Reform Options), prepared an Intervention Analysis, finalized its Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (AMEP), and completed a Gender Analysis and Risk Monitoring plan. FST also carried out required ICT assessments of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU) and the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC). Accordingly, the Project focus was on providing direct technical assistance, establishing productive working relationships with counterparts, and implementing an active public outreach program on consumer financial protection, financial literacy and awareness, pension reform, and digital finance. A list of key documents produced by the Project is provided in Annex 1. Annex 2 provides an up-dated copy of the project’s Work Plan, April 2017 to September 30, 2017, with a status report on deliverables. The Project undertook several major initiatives in pursuit of its objective to transform the financial sector, focusing on the development of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). Highlights by key focus area include: Public Confidence in the Financial Sector The Project strategy is to build public confidence in the financial sector by focusing on changing attitudes and behavior of individual consumers, through legal/regulatory reform, financial empowerment training, and public education and outreach activities. Successful FST initiatives included: • Support for the new Consumer Lending Law, including comments on the regulations adopted, holding a major conference on practical implementation issues, and the launch of a survey on consumer lending practices by NBFIs (advertising, information disclosure) with the results to be presented September 12 at a 1-day conference on consumer protection with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). • An active program of financial education for vulnerable groups in 11 oblasts of Ukraine, with subcontractor the Ukrainian Women’s Fund. During the quarter, 1,347 individuals participated in 2-day trainings. • Promotion of the role of the NBU as the leader of financial consumer protection in Ukraine, including a major report on international practice in supervising and regulating consumer finance. • Promotion of the concept of a financial ombudsman for Ukraine with regulators, NBFIs, members of parliament, and international donors, including a draft law to be submitted to the Rada in September. Commodity and Capital Markets The Project continued its support for legal and regulatory reform for capital markets (comments on laws, participation in workshops) and improved dialogue between the Securities Commission and market participants (support for the Ukrainian Association of Investment Businesses annual conference). Two major activities were accomplished: • FST subcontractor EY completed the required analysis of the Commission’s IT systems, and recommended several improvements to enable it to perform an enhanced role in financial information disclosure. Five ITC initiatives (HR, Management Processes, Outsourcing, 2 Security Enhancements) will be implemented over the next 6 months. • A Three-day Corporate Governance Conference was held with the participation of the United States Securities Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Corporation. 3 NBFI Development (Access to Finance) FST’s activities mainly focused on assisting the NBU to develop strategy and capacity to regulate NBFIs, to assist the development of leasing to provide access to finance for SMEs, and to inform consumers and SMEs about NBFI services. Key activities during the quarter were: • For the NBU, conducted gap analysis of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation and regulations with EU directives for NBFIs; drafted a Roadmap for NBU supervision of credit unions; and prepared a report on international practices of regulation and supervision of credit unions through self-regulatory organizations; • With Ukrainian Union of Lessors, developed a strategic plan for industry development and assisted in preparing a draft law on leasing activity. • Conducted seminars in Kiev, Lviv and Odessa on consumer views and attitudes toward credit unions, leasing companies, pawn shops, and short-term lenders, which generated high media attention. Digital Finance FST’S digital finance activities focused on efforts to improve the ecosystem for a cashless economy. The project commented on laws and regulations, and began drafting a direct debit law to facilitate ecommerce. The Project also organized and/or participated in several fora to communicate more broadly the advantages of digital finance and the opportunities it offers for financial inclusion of vulnerable groups, the unbanked, rural population and pensioners. The three most significant activities were: • Advised the NBU on blockchain technology and fiat currency, leading to the organizing of a study tour to the United States in September on financial inclusion, digital financial solutions and ecurrency technologies. Representatives from the NBU, Ministry of Finance, and UkrPoshta will participate. • Initiated plans for two pilot project activities, one with the Ministry of Internal Affairs on digitizing payments for motor vehicle and visa registration, and one on mobile wallets linked to agricultural value chains, in collaboration with the USAID/ARDS project. Pension Reform Pension reform was the most active focus area of FST activities in the third quarter. New pension legislation is a structural condition of Ukraine’s economic adjustment program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was scheduled to be achieved by April 2017. The Project worked collaboratively with the World Bank and the IMF (and with elements of the GOU) to produce a pension modernization bill that would improve the benefits to pensioners while being fiscally sustainable. Economic and demographic analyses and projections were performed by FST, an expert working group met regularly to develop a pension reform concept, a high-level “retreat” was held to discuss alternative pension system scenarios, and materials were distributed to a parliamentary committee. Following the introduction of the pension bill on June 22, FST (at the request of the Ministry of Social Policy, MSP) began an active program of publications, materials, and outreach activities in support of pension reform. These will be continued and expanded in the fall. FST also completed its ICT assessment of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU) and began the procurement process for hardware and software purchases that will be about 4 II. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION RISKS Ukraine has been rated by USAID as a “non-permissive environment” or NPE country because of the threat of war with Russia, the conflict in the separatist held territories, and endemic corruption that constrains efforts to institutionalize a market economy. Per its Risk Assessment Report (April, 2017), the FST Project monitors risk on three levels: International (global); National (domestic); and Project-specific. During the Quarter the following developments were noted: International/Global Risk: Potentially Severe But Low Probability The near and medium term outlook for Ukraine is for relatively low-levels of conflict to continue between the GOU and the Russian-backed separatist forces. Between April 1 and June, 30, 2017 there were repeated violations of the Minsk Agreement aimed