Ukraine—Investment for Business Resilience Activity

Building on three decades of support to Ukraine’s financial sector, including the recently completed Financial Sector Transformation Activity (FST)—the Investment for Business Resilience Activity (formerly called Financial Sector Reform (FSR) Activity) supports Ukraine’s economic development and growth.

The Investment for Business Resilience Activity builds the capacity of financial sector regulators and the many actors that make up Ukraine’s nascent financial ecosystem—including the private sector and civil society—to develop new financial architecture and instruments that support Ukrainian businesses and consumers.

It leverages FST’s critical legal and regulatory reforms in the non-bank sector, including the passage of the Split Law, the Regulated Markets Law, and anti-corruption legislation. It promotes non-bank small business and consumer finance, and advocates for consumer protection laws and mechanisms that build public trust in the system.

Given the ongoing Russian invasion, the Investment for Business Resilience Activity will work with donors and other development finance institutions to coordinate support to the financial sector and financial sector contribution to the rebuilding of Ukraine.

Ukraine stands poised to continue its transition to a system in which all businesses have access to finance, where bank and non-bank financial institutions operate as efficient and transparent intermediaries, once the conflict subsides. With additional support and development, its financial system can provide the integrity, stability, and transparency to enable price discovery, raise capital, increase savings and investment, and provide risk management for businesses to fully participate.

Importantly, the Investment for Business Resilience Activity will complete FST’s foundational efforts to create a world-class, multi-asset capital and commodity market and trading hub, NEXT-UA, in partnership with the U.S. and Ukrainian Governments.

To build the capacity of business advocates, associations, consumer watchdogs, and academia to educate and protect Ukrainian consumers and businesses from misinformation over the long term, we will use our Grants Under Contract facility to fund new oversight mechanisms, improved journalism, and tools that enable everyday Ukrainians to understand and trust the system.

Sample Activities

• Improve market regulation and oversight of non-bank sector.
• Promote capital and commodity market reforms to improve regulation and oversight.
• Enable the creation and trading of securities.
• Expand the use of capital markets and instruments by government and private companies.
• Expand the use of modern payment systems to increase the efficiency of transactions.