Registration of a financial institution

The procedure of registering a financial company in Ukraine

The establishment of a financial company can be divided into three stages:

• Registration of a legal entity of the desired business structure (may be different for certain types of financial institutions), the formation of the authorized share capital;

• Registration in the Register of Financial Institutions of Ukraine;

• Obtaining a Financial License of the required type or several Financial Licenses.

The second and third stages now take place in parallel at the NBU, which requires additional attention to the correct execution of documents.

To successfully obtain a license and to register a company in the Register of Financial Institutions, the company must meet certain requirements:

• Requirements for the business legal structure of the financial company. Most often a company can be registered in any business form, but, for example, pawnshops can only be registered as a full company and insurance companies as a joint stock company or an additional liability company;

• Requirements for the premises of a financial company. The main requirement for the premises is its availability and supporting documents. But certain types of financial institutions must equip their premises according to certain requirements. For example, premises of credit company must have limited access and be equipped with safe for keeping money, etc;

• Authorized share capital requirements for a financial company. Most financial institutions must have a minimum authorized share capital, for example, for a pawnshop it is UAH 500K and for a financial company engaged in several types of financial activities - not less than UAH 5 million;

• Personnel requirements for a financial company. The basic personnel requirements will be the requirements for the director and the accountant of the financial institution. For example, the director of most financial companies must have a higher education, certificate of training courses and work experience of 5 years minimum, including two years in managerial positions and one year minimum as a director in the financial services markets. There is also a requirement for impeccable business reputation. 

Our lawyers provide legal assistance in the following processes:

Registration of a Credit Company in Ukraine

Registration of a Pawnshop in Ukraine

Registration of a Factoring Company in Ukraine

Registration of a Leasing Company in Ukraine

Registration of a Currency Exchange Company in Ukraine

Registration of an Insurance Company in Ukraine

Registration of a Banking Company in Ukraine

Registration of an Asset Management Company in Ukraine

Registration of a Mutual Investment Fund in Ukraine

Please contact our specialists for details on the procedure for registering any type of financial institution you need, or look for answers in our publications on this topic.

Registration of changes in the financial company

In case of any changes in a financial institution regarding the information it provided to the NBU (or the previous licensing authority) during the registration in the FI Register, it must notify the NBU of such changes within the prescribed period.

If a new director or chief accountant of a financial institution is appointed, and the new officer does not have a qualification enhancement document, then within three months the officer must take a qualification enhancement course and pass the exam.

You should also remember that the purchase of a ready-made financial institution entails the submission of three sets of documents to the NBU.

The first set of documents concerns the renewal of the Certificate of registration of a financial institution (due to a change of the name or legal address) and includes: a registration card of a financial institution, the original certificate of registration of a financial institution, an extract from the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations of Ukraine.

The second set of documents concerns the notification of the NBU about other changes (e.g., director, financial monitoring officer, current account, etc.) and includes: a registration card, notification of changes, and various certificates, orders and documents confirming the changes.

Finally, the third set of documents is for obtaining an Approval of Acquisition of Substantial Participation.

This Approval is executed by the NBU Order and is issued in the form of a dispositive document. It should be noted that the main document to be submitted to obtain the Approval is the document confirming the origin of funds used to purchase the financial institution. Such a document may be a payroll statement, income statement of the sole proprietor, bank statement on the availability of funds in the account, etc.

If a new place of business (new branches) is opened, the NBU should be notified thereof. Information about new branches shall be entered in the Register of Financial Institutions.

Please note! In 2021, all financial companies must bring their ownership structure information into compliance. We wrote about it in detail here.

Organization, registration and licensing of financial companies/institutions in Ukraine

A Financial License is a document you cannot do without, if you want to start a business in this area.

We have been providing services for obtaining licenses for various organizations for many years and know the whole procedure from A to Z.

Cooperating with our company, you can always count on:

• Reliability. If we take on your task, it will be done.

• Simplicity. Our lawyers’ in-depth legal expertise helps us handle any legal matter simply, safely and efficiently. We have no interest in dragging things out if we can solve all problems quickly. We value your time and ours.

• Availability. We are always in touch, you don’t need to hunt for our Client Manager. Our specialist will keep you informed 24/7.

If you intend to register your financial company, don't’ hesitate to contact us!