In late June, the National Bank ordered state-owned Ukrposhta to dismiss its head Ihor Smilianskyi due to non-compliance with professional suitability requirements. According to the regulator, the company was involved in transactions accepting 11.9 billion hryvnias in cash of unknown origin in violation of financial monitoring rules.
This was reported by Economichna Pravda, according to the portal PromPolitInform.
In late June, the National Bank ordered state-owned Ukrposhta to dismiss its long-standing head Ihor Smilianskyi due to non-compliance with professional suitability requirements. The regulator gave five working days to implement this decision, but Smilianskyi remains in office and is preparing documents for a court appeal. The public conflict was preceded by an inspection by the National Bank for the period from January 1, 2022, to July 31, 2023, the results of which revealed violations in the field of financial monitoring.
According to the inspection findings, the postal operator carried out atypical operations and accepted cash proceeds from companies for a total amount of 11.9 billion hryvnias. The lion’s share of funds, namely 11.4 billion hryvnias, came from six limited liability companies, in particular those associated with payment terminal networks. In February 2024, the NBU fined Ukrposhta 17.39 million hryvnias, and the state-owned company paid this fine without appeal.
The procedure for carrying out operations triggered an inspection
The regulator’s key claim is that Ukrposhta accepted cash without proper financial monitoring measures and did not check the origin of funds. The state-owned company explained this by the need for cash to pay pensions and social payments in frontline areas, but a significant portion of the funds was accepted in the west of the country and collected to an account at Oschadbank. In February 2023, Oschadbank informed the regulator about a sharp increase in the volume of cash that Ukrposhta deposited in western Ukraine without specialized transport and security.
In addition, the inspection revealed a reduced commission for the specified six companies ranging from 0.001% to 0.1% instead of the standard rate of 0.2%. On these transactions, the postal operator earned 8.7 million hryvnias instead of the potential 22.8 million hryvnias. Regarding the infliction of losses, the Security Service of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings and seized documents at the National Bank.
Position of the head of Ukrposhta
Ihor Smilianskyi rejected accusations of cash laundering and pointed out that the state-owned company received funds from entities that had National Bank licenses. “The question is simple: if we are dealing with Ibox Bank, which has a license from the NBU, should I ask additional questions?”, Smilianskyi said. He also added that Ukrposhta worked as a collector, picking up cash and depositing it in the bank due to the lack of bank branches in most settlements.
The head of the state-owned company explained the reduced commission rates by the terms of cooperation with major counterparties in order to generate income. Following the NBU inspection, Ukrposhta stopped providing the service of accepting cash proceeds from enterprises to avoid new accusations. Meanwhile, issues of compliance with financial monitoring rules and the future fate of the postal operator’s head continue to be considered at the level of the government and supervisory authorities.
Photo: EP
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