A. Yatseniuk about bank system: Now the main thing is order. We have support of international lenders; have tools and mechanisms of National Bank

Now the main thing is a tranquility. We have the support of international lenders, the tools and mechanisms of the National Bank, professional bankers and stable banking system. This was started by Prime Minister of Ukraine Arsenii Yatseniuk during the joint with the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv press conference Friday, February 28, 2014.

Arsenii Yatseniuk on behalf of the Government said "We respect the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Government will not interfere in the operation of the National Bank."

"Our common objective is to restore negotiations with the International Monetary Fund the immediately and to receive funds from international financial institutions," he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that clear steps to provide financial assistance to Ukraine are being prepared. He said that he had a conversation with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, heads of the EU and the management of international financial institutions.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance is working out the mechanism to receive financial assistance for Ukraine – the rapid credit instruments.

"I hope that we would get extra currency soon after the signals received from international financial institutions and these increase the level of gold and currency reserves and enable Ukraine to stabilize the situation," Arsenii Yatseniuk noted.

The Prime Minister has addressed to the National Bank to control primarily foreign exchange transactions that are questionable in nature: "The Government will assist in this."

Arsenii Yatseniuk also said that he address to the State Financial Monitoring Service to take all measures to control the outflow of funds from Ukraine "when I’ll be informed that there is removal of deposits of millions of dollars, I think it comes not about 85% of depositors in Ukraine, who have average deposits of UAH 20 thousand."

"When it comes about the taking out of millions of dollars, and then they get the millions to bank’s safe-deposit boxes – they are not ordinary citizens of Ukraine, the people who in particular have deal both with former government and shadow incomes," Arsenii Yatseniuk said.

The Prime Minister also said that the government "respects the position of the Regulator and welcomes the fact that the Central bank does not take more stringent measures in the deposit market. This means that the situation can be controlled. After the stabilization, we will refer to commercial banks and the Central Bank concerning broad credit program of the Ukrainian economy."

"We recognize that today the refinancing of commercial banks in national currency would mean pressure on the currency market. This would also enable currency speculators to play at the Interbank Currency Exchange. But this time will pass, and after stabilization, we need to resume lending of the Ukrainian economy," he said.

According to the Prime Minister, we should significantly lower interest rates in the real economy: "This applies to the refinancing rate of the Central Bank, which is more real and reflect the resource costs and rates in real sector of Ukrainian economy."

He stressed that it is very important for the Government to stabilize the financial, banking sector and economy as a whole: "The picture is very sad, we openly declare about it. And the Government of Ukraine will take extremely unpopular measures to stabilize the economic situation in the country."

"We are convinced that after the approval of the program of the Government of Ukraine, which identifies one of the key priorities to recover the program with the IMF and the fulfillment of all the conditions necessary to obtain this loan, the Parliament and the coalition will support the bills necessary to obtain appropriate funds," Arsenii Yatseniuk noted.

The Prime Minister said that the objective of the Government for the short term is the stabilization of the situation. He addresses to the heads of commercial banks: "the main issue of the banking system today is a trust, the trust of your customers to your banks. Work with people, explain to people the situation. Any deposits we return, as we brought back them in 2004."

He recalled that he was acting Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine in 2004, "that time the currency rate collapsed to 8 UAH per 1 USD. That time all ran to buy the dollar at UAH 8, and then they sold it at UAH 5. Then everyone ran to take off early deposits and, therefore, they did not pay interest on deposits, and then backed funds from safe-deposit boxes to bank accounts. "

"Now the main thing is a tranquility. We have the support of international lenders; have the tools and mechanisms of the National Bank, professional bankers and stable banking system. We have passed more than a crisis, and this we will overcome. The Government of Ukraine will do everything in order to stabilize the situation in Ukraine," Arsenii Yatseniuk said.