EQUITY Attorney Participated in the Roundtable on “Problematic Issues of Application of Legislation in the Course of Bank Withdrawal from the Market”

On May 31, Kyiv City Economic Court hosted a Roundtable on "Problematic Issues of Application of Legislation in the Course of Bank Withdrawal from the Market".

Judges, attorneys, representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Deposit Guarantee Fund exchanged opinions and  practical advice on resolving pressing issues related to reforming the procedure for withdrawing banks from the market.

Oleksiy Stepanenko, Senior Lawyer, Project Manager of EQUITY Dispute Resolution and Bankruptcy Practices projects, joined the expert dialogue further to the invitation from the organizers and highlighted the legal status of "resuscitated" banks, i.e. financial institutions that were able to successfully challenge in court the decisions by the NBU Board on temporary administration and liquidation.

Based on the EQUITY client’s case of PJSC “Ukrincom” (former name - PJSC “Ukrinbank”) there was a meaningful discussion among the participants of the Round Table. The discussion concluded that if the court's cancels the decision by the NBU Board on temporary administration and liquidation, the respective legal entity (former bank) has the right to independently engage all and any measures to continue its own legal operations, including by making the respective name-related changes to the register (removal of the word "bank" from the name) and exclusion of banking activities from the Classifier of Economic Activities.

At the same time, representatives of judges, shareholders, depositors of banks and attorneys who participated in the round table agreed that the above-mentioned registration changes (related to name change and CEA) by the former bank cannot be deemed reorganization   and neither involve succession relations, nor affect contract-related rights and obligations of such legal entity (former bank). Thus, such a legal entity has the right to collect debts from its debtors and must fulfill its own obligations to its own creditors in full.

EQUITY always supports honest and open dialogue between the judiciary and the bar, consistently upholding the rule of law and justice.