Svitlana Rekrut, Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, has announced that she is resigning. UNN found out who could become the new head of the Fund.
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Svitlana Rekrut has worked at the Deposit Guarantee Fund for ten years, and she has been its head for five of them. However, her term of office expires on July 17 this year. In an interview with Forbes, she said that she did not want to extend her contract and was resigning.
I look back with pride at everything that has been done over the years by the Foundation's wonderful team of professionals. These are people with a forward-looking vision and the courage to implement the most ambitious projects,
At the same time, Rekrut told reporters that the law does not provide for a competition for her position, but only a direct appointment. The situation may change only next year, when candidates for senior positions in the DGF may be selected through a competition.
According to Rekrut, the memorandum with the International Monetary Fund contains amendments according to which Ukrainian legislation should be clarified by March 2025 in terms of appointing the DGF Managing Director. Recruit did not rule out that in the future the head of the Fund will be selected through a competition.
She said that she had informed the National Bank, the Ministry of Finance, and the International Monetary Fund of her decision to resign in advance, and discussions about who would replace her have been going on for the past few months.
The DGF Administrative Board should appoint a new Managing Director in July. Logically, the DGF should be headed by one of Recruit's deputies. In particular, according to UNN, the candidacy of Olga Bilay, who has been working at the Fund since July 2017, is being considered for the position of Managing Director. At first, she was the Director of the Asset Management Department, and since August 2019, she has been the Deputy Managing Director of the DGF.
Bilyi is actively involved in the media coverage of the DGF's efforts to remove insolvent banks from the market. Such activity may indicate her ambitions to head the structure.
However, according to UNN's sources , Bilyi is not the only person being considered for the position of managing director of the DGF. According to the publication, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andriy Pyshnyi is lobbying for the appointment of his man to this position to strengthen his influence in the financial sector. In particular, if he succeeds, the financial sector may be under Pyshnyi's full control, except for the part that the Ministry of Finance is directly responsible for.
According to sources close to the NBU governor, Pyshnyy is pushing Pavlo Polarush, head of the NBU's Department for Work with Distressed Assets, to the top position.
Pyshnyi probably won't have to put much effort into getting his man to the top position at the DGF. After all, the chairman of the fund's administrative board, which appoints the management, is Oleksandr Zyma, director of the NBU's legal department, who previously worked with Pyshnyi at Oschadbank. Moreover, criminal proceedings are already being investigated against Zyma for possible abuse of power or office, which led to grave consequences (part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code), so it is possible that the official is hooked and ready to fulfill all the whims of his boss.
In the case of Polarush's appointment, there may be a potential conflict of interest. After all, he is the civilian husband of Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak. Therefore, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption should pay closer attention to his appointment.
UNN asked Mudra whether she would continue to hold the position after her civilian husband was appointed head of the DGF.
By the way, it is possible that Mudra may have American citizenship in addition to Ukrainian, which is prohibited by the Constitution of Ukraine. It is also possible that Polarosz may have another passport in addition to his Ukrainian one. After all, he and Mudra's son Lev has US citizenship. This became known from the official's declaration - in 2020, he indicated that Lev Polarosh was a US citizen. However, starting in 2021, Polarush's declarations indicated that the official's son had a Ukrainian passport.
According to the NBU website, Pavlo Polarush has been working in the Ukrainian banking sector for almost 15 years, in particular in the areas of corporate client relations, risk management, and non-performing loans.
In 2019-2021, he was already the Head of the NBU's Department for Work with Distressed Assets. After leaving the NBU, in 2021-2023, Polarush worked at the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. He later returned to his previous position at the NBU.