Rafal Juszczak is one of the few Poles entitled to manage a bank in Ukraine. Ex-CEO of PKO BP passed an exam at the National Bank of Ukraine last week. Now he may officially be named the CEO of First Ukrainian International Bank which he has been heading since summer. FUIB belongs to the capital group of billionaire Rinat Achmetow and is the 14th bank in Ukraine today. Rafal Juszczak promised to take it into the first league of banks. In his opinion, the situation in Ukraine is not easy today because of the financial crisis.
“The situation is very difficult in many aspects but it looks worse when watched from outside, like Poland, then when watched from inside”, Rafal Juszczak believed.
The Ukrainians don’t worry too much, however although their central bank put a ban on closing deposits before they expire, there are limits in access to cash in ATMs while clients of two banks receive SMSs to draw their money out of safes of future bankrupts. There are no signs of panic, there are no queues in front of banks.
“The situation is not new to Ukrainians who remember the Russian crisis in 1990ies”, Rafal Juszczak added.
He believes, however, that Ukrainian economy needs deep changes. He has welcomed the decision of the International Monetary Fund which is ready to lend USD 16.5bn to Kiev.
“Ukraine is highly indebted already but it needs funds to stabilize its situation. In Poland, people talk about lack of trust among banks. In Ukraine, there is no trust at all”, Mr. Juszczak believed.
He says that all banks have problems with cashflow. Corporate credits are
very rare. The Ukrainians prefer to have cash on them over a bank deposit.
That’s why, Rafal Juszczak believes, it would be advisable for the National Bank
of Ukraine, to follow the suit of other central banks and implement 100 percent
guarantees for deposits of Ukrainians.