The New Deal: How will change the policy of the National Bank with Andriy Pyshny

The parliament appointed a new Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine by 290 votes. No surprise was expected and did not happen – it was Andriy Pyshny, whose appointment to this position was predictable from the very beginning.

According to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, First Deputy Chairman of the Tax Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Pyshny attended the meeting and made a short presentation of his strategy before the vote.

What priorities did Andriy Pyshny outline for his work at the NBU? As his priority, he named cooperation with the IMF, which is the only condition for attracting donor assistance from international partners. If this is not achieved, Ukraine will be forced to go through "emission financing of the budget", to print hryvnia in other words.

The Ukrainian budget deficit is estimated at $30 billion per year.

The issue that worries every single one is the exchange rate strategy. The exchange rate seems to remain within the limits set by the regulator – it will not be adjusted, but will not be released. According to the new head of the National Bank, "the NBU rate is so far adequate and meets the current economic realities".

He also praised the level of the discount rate at 25%.

Why it was he who became Kyrylo Shevchenko's successor? Andriy Pyshny has been considered for the position of the NBU head since last autumn, when relations between the Presidential Office and the then Chairman of the National Bank Kyrylo Shevchenko began to cool down. His appointment was slowed down by the war, as the change of the financial regulator in the midst of peak volatility would not have been understood by anyone, primarily by international partners.

Andriy Pyshny's professional qualities do not cause complaints even among traditional critics of any decisions by the authorities. He is one of the most experienced bankers in Ukraine.

Pyshnyi has 16 years of background in banking, where his main work was bound to Oschadbank – from 2003 to 2007, he was the First Deputy Chairman of the Board of this bank, and in 2014–2020, he chaired it. Under Pyshny, Oschadbank, which was notable for its rigidity and bureaucratism, tried to get the service component up and running and modernise themselves. Being a user of the bank's services, the Mind author can state that the changes were rather surface ones – stylish design of cards and branches, but the work itself remained quite burdensome. It is much more important that Oschadbank under Pyshny's leadership showed profitability.

What questions may arise to such a personnel decision of the government? The name of Andriy Pyshny has appeared several times in investigations of the activities and individual operations of Oschadbank by inspection and anti-corruption bodies, but no official complaints have ever been lodged against Pyshny.

His political connections may also hardly be called discrediting. Pyshny is an old political associate of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk: they worked together over the Front of Change political project.

Despite the fact that Pyshny is definitely suitable for the post of the NBU Chairman, the very personnel policy in the regulator raises concerns.

"What is wrong with replacing the Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine? The next one will be the 13th or 11th, if we count those who served two terms as one person. Currently, the head of the National Bank is appointed for seven years – for a deliberately longer period than the electoral cycle (five years). Thus, there is an attempt to avoid excessive politicisation of the position – when a new president is elected, he or she changes the National Bank," says Mykhailo Demkiv, financial analyst at ICU, "But events are developing rather too dynamically in Ukraine. Maybe seven years is too much in our conditions."

The fate of his predecessor should also alert Pyshny.  Having replaced Yakiv Smoliy, who had complained about political pressure, Kyrylo Shevchenko now speaks in the same words. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office served him with charges of embezzlement of Ukrgasbank funds. According to Shevchenko, he learned about it from the media while being treated abroad.

But, of course, on the first day of his appointment, every top official is sure that this will not happen to him.

Biography. Andriy Pyshny was born on 26 October, 1974 in Dobrovody, Zbarazh Rayon, Ternopil Oblast.

In 1996, he graduated from Chernivtsi State University with a degree in law, and in 2005 – from the NBU Ukrainian Academy of Banking with a degree in banking.

Mr. Pyshny is Candidate of Law Science, his dissertation topic was "Legal Status of State-Owned Banks of Ukraine".
Pyshny worked at Chernivtsi State University in 1996 as a teacher-trainee, assistant at the Department of Constitutional, Administrative and Financial Law.

In 2000, he started working at Oschadbank as the Head of the Legal Department. In 2014, he headed this bank.

From May 2007 to June 2009, Pyshny was Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. In the parliamentary elections in October 2012, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a Front of Change party nominee by the and was the First Deputy Chairman of the Regulation, Parliamentary Ethics and Maintenance of Activities of the Verkhovna Rada Parliamentary Committee.

On 7 October, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Andriy Pyshny the Chairman of the National Bank.