NON-BANK LEASING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NEW NBU PROGRAM

The National Bank of Ukraine has prepared the last of six sectoral documents, which acts as the future regulator of non-banking financial services markets, and describes their current status, problems and planned changes in regulation. This time the book is dedicated to the non-banking leasing market in Ukraine. It is reported that in order to create favorable conditions for the development of leasing, the National Bank plans to clearly regulate and expand the sources of financing for leasing companies, additionally allowing to attract funds from affiliates and funds on subordinated debt, including from individuals and legal entities that are qualified investors, and by issuing debt securities.
According to official data published in a new NBU document, the main contractors of legal entities - lessors in Ukraine are business entities operating in the field of agriculture, transport, and food industry services. Preferred leasing items are transport, agricultural and industrial equipment. In addition, the NBU argues that over the past few years, the financial leasing market in Ukraine has been growing, taking into account the practice of developed countries, where financial leasing services have long been actively used by the population and business representatives as an alternative to bank lending. It is assumed that the future model of regulating leasing activities will have to create opportunities for further stable development of the leasing market in Ukraine, guarantee the rights of consumers in this market, ensuring their confidence in the market and awareness, similar to countries where such a tool is used by consumers regularly.
In accordance with the text of a published official document, the new regulatory model provides for the following mandatory conditions and opportunities for representatives of such a market:

Mandatory obtaining by legal entities lessors of the status of financial companies.
Creating conditions for simplified market access.
Mandatory availability of a business development plan for obtaining a license.
Ensuring transparency during the provision of services, protecting client rights, impeccable business reputation and quality reporting.
Solvency guarantee of the person who provides leasing services.
A number of new opportunities, including: a clear list of sources of access to financing from third parties, granting permission by financial companies to carry out other activities (for example, the provision of operational leasing services). It is also reported that leasing companies will be able to combine the provision of financial services with the provision of certain types of accompanying services or operations (intermediary insurance of the leased asset; repair and maintenance of property that is the subject of leasing; sale of property that was the subject of leasing and which was addressed collection; transfer of property for rent, consulting services, etc.).

As in the five previous sectoral documents, the NBU pays special attention not only to licensing, but also to the ownership structure, access to financing of lessors, supervision of market behavior, financial monitoring, reporting, and also exit from the market.
Lastly, it is reported that the general rules for the future regulation of the financial services market will be determined in the law "On financial services and activities for the provision of financial services", which will serve as a framework law for all financial services in Ukraine. Special rules on the regulation and supervision of leasing companies will be determined in the future law “On financial companies”, and civil law relations regarding financial leasing will be determined in the Law of Ukraine “On financial leasing”.