The National Bank of Ukraine ( NBU [НБУ]) is the central bank of Ukraine. Created in 1991 from the Ukrainian operations of the Soviet Gosbank, the NBU employs over 12,000 people, making it one of the largest employers in the financial sector in Ukraine. It regulates and supervises activities, functions and the legal status of public and commercial banks based on the principles of the Constitution of Ukraine and the law of Ukraine.[4]
History
The State Bank of Ukraine was a predecessor of the NBU, founded on 22 December 1917 under a law passed by the Central Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic on the basis of the Kyiv branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire. It functioned under the UPR and Ukrainian State governments until it was liquidated by the Bolsheviks at the end of the Ukrainian War of Independence.
The Ukrainian branch of the Soviet Gosbank took on central banking functions in Ukraine in early 1991. Like institutions of many newly independent nations, it faced dire financial straits during the 1990s, leading to a prolonged period of hyperinflation. On 20 March 1991, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) adopted the resolution "On Banks and Banking Activity", which became law on May 1. The resolution declared ownership by the Ukrainian SSR of the Ukrainian Republican branch of the Gosbank, which was subsequently renamed the National Bank.