IMF against the “schadenization” of the NBU: the West is dissatisfied with Pyshny’s personnel decisions

From simply loyal people to those involved in high-profile criminal cases: having received the post of head of the NBU, Andrei Pyshny brought with him a whole team of people from Oschadbank. And in order to provide them with portfolios, he “cleared” places by firing old staff. How might rotations based on potential conflicts of interest affect Ukraine’s relations with Western financial partners?

The IMF has already expressed its dissatisfaction with the personnel “purges” in the National Bank during Pyshny’s chairmanship, says journalist and analyst of economic publications Sergei Lyamets.

“The head of the NBU was given the understanding that “schadenization” has acquired too alarming volumes. This word is used to describe the large-scale process of “cleansing” the National Bank of old top managers and appointing managers from Oschadbank, which Pyshny led from 2014 to 2020, to their positions. The IMF’s position meant, in particular, that the head of the NBU board should forget about his plan,” he noted.

Which of the former Oschadbank employees are we talking about? Investigated by StopCora journalist Olga Levitskaya.

At the beginning of this year, the Government approved Taras Yeleiko as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Ukrgasbank, but did not approve the candidacy of the NBU specialist - experts suggest that the reason could be his “uncontrollability” by Andrey Pyshny. Instead of him, to the position of acting entrusted to Rodion Morozov, a former adviser to the secretariat of the Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank, whose brother Alexander Morozov worked as Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank. Then Pyshny was his deputy to Morozov Sr.

Moreover, immediately after Pyshny’s transfer to the National Bank, Dmitry Oleinik, who now heads financial monitoring and supervision of banking institutions, became his deputy. In 2017-2019, Oleynik worked under the leadership of Pyshny at Sberbank, after which he moved to work at the Ministry of Finance.

In addition to Oleynik, other personnel from Oschadbank joined the NBU - director of the legal department Alexander Zima, director of the security department Alexander Palamarchuk, director of the communications department Yulia Yevtushenko and heads of structural divisions of the NBU Anna Lipskaya and Andrey Kotyuzhinsky.