Head of Ukraine's Stock Market Commission assures of its operational capacity
Ukraine's National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), more than half of whose members may be dismissed, remains and will continue to remain operational, while the expected renewal of the commission will increase its effectiveness, Chairman Ruslan Magomedov told Interfax-Ukraine.
"The market definitely has nothing to worry about. Everything that is happening at the commission is evidence that we are making tectonic shifts. That is, we are breaking the system, and the system is fighting those who are breaking it," he said.
Magomedov noted that all changes at the commission are aimed at improvement, renewal, and increasing efficiency, and that statements about the regulator's possible incapacity are rumors spread to hinder its work.
"I am confident that everyone will be very pleased when the commission is renewed," the chairman said.
Among other things, he said he would do everything possible to ensure that by the end of his term – February 23, 2027 – a law on individual investment accounts is adopted, which, together with another idea of selling 7% stakes in state-owned companies and banks, would form the basis for a market reboot.
Interfax-Ukraine reported in October that NSSMC member Irakli Baramia had submitted a resignation letter, and also noted that the commission's chairman had submitted a motion to dismiss another member, Maksym Libanov, whose term had expired.
According to the publication Ekonomichna Pravda, two more NSSMC members, Yuriy Boiko and Yaroslav Shliakhov, submitted resignation requests to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early December.
If all four NSSMC members are dismissed and no new appointments are made, the commission would lose its quorum. In addition, as one NSSMC member told Interfax-Ukraine, from January 1, 2026, a provision of the new law comes into force requiring candidates to pass a selection commission before being submitted for appointment, which could increase the time needed to make such personnel decisions.
As a collegial body, the NSSMC consists of a chairman and seven members (six members prior to the adoption of the new law in February), who are appointed by the President of Ukraine for six years and dismissed in accordance with his decrees.
Magomedov, who at the time was an unpaid adviser to the head of the President's Office and previously served as director of Astrum Capital, was appointed chairman of the NSSMC on February 23, 2021, replacing Tymur Khromaiev, whose term expired along with that of three other members of the regulator.
By presidential decrees dated April 1, 2021, four new NSSMC members were appointed: Baramia, director of the department for supervision of professional participants in the stock market; Boiko, former head of the Agency for the Development of Stock Market Infrastructure and a member of the supervisory board of the PFTS stock exchange; Shliakhov, head of the securities department at TAScombank; and former Settlement Center head Shapoval.
Libanov was appointed as an NSSMC member on February 28, 2018, and therefore retained his mandate during the formation of the new commission, while on April 9, 2021, the commission was joined by Arsen Ilyin, former director of the Carpathian Ore Company from the Avellana Gold group.
The adoption in 2024 of a new law on a seventh commission member has not yet affected the commission's composition.
According to the NSSMC's structure, Libanov oversees committees on stock market development strategy and economic analysis, as well as on issuers' operations and corporate governance, while Baramia oversees committees on post-trade infrastructure of capital markets, as well as supervision and control over the functioning of capital markets and organized commodity markets.
KPMG, during its assessment of the chairman and the NSSMC conducted as part of cooperation with the IMF and published in early October, expressed the view that replacing the chairman and all commission members simultaneously creates problems with continuity, institutional knowledge, and organizational memory.
"To ensure continuity of decision-making and consistency of course, we recommend implementing staggered appointments of commission members. Without staggered appointments, changes may lead to the loss of strategic vision and result in slow adaptation," the consultant said.
According to the report, sequential appointments would allow experienced commission members to mentor new ones, enhancing organizational stability and preserving ongoing progress.
