The Ukraine

With a booming economy and financial reformation underway, Ukraine is an increasingly attractive ..... for foreign investors.

After parliamentary elections, Yulia Tymoshenko and Yushchenko's political groups are expected to form a coalition in the next government; even after this outcome, it seems likely there will be regular ..... of political uncertainty, but Ukraine is still booming economically, with GDP rising year-on-year by 7.7%.

Although Ukraine is not a European Union (EU) ..... country, under the leadership of Yushchenko it is looking more towards the EU rather than Russia for its political and macroeconomic model.

The Orange Revolution at the end of 2004 came ..... as Yanukovych's victory in the presidential election sparked mass protests, resulting in the election re-run that was won by Yushchenko.

This event ..... Ukraine's global profile and is also seen as the starting point of the real interest shown by foreign investors in the country's financial services sector.

The Ukrainian hryvnia is not yet fully ....., but is expected to be completely deregulated by the end of 2008.

Domestic and inter-bank payments in Ukraine are made through the real-time settlement system, called the System of Electronic Payments (SEP), which has been in ..... since the mid 1990s and is owned and operated by Ukraine's central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine.

Liquidity management remains a great challenge for banks and corporates in Ukraine: cash concentration structures are not regulated by Ukrainian laws and can be treated as inter-company lending, which is the sole ..... of financial institutions.

Presently, foreign banks may operate only representative offices or Ukrainian subsidiaries; this will open up more possibilities for the Ukrainian banks to develop new services and products, and to introduce a new advanced format of payments and cash management systems which are ..... particularly high demand from multinational clients.

Ukraine is currently in the process of ..... to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and this will also mean increasing standardisation of the financial environment and will result in a more attractive environment for foreign investors.