Valeria Hontareva

Valeriia Oleksiivna Hontareva, also spelled as Valeria Hontareva and Valeria Gontareva, (Ukrainian: Вале́рія Олексі́ївна Го́нтарева) (born 20 October 1964 in Dnipropetrovsk) is Governor or Chairwoman of the National Bank of Ukraine.[2][3] She submitted her resignation on 10 April 2017 and left the bank on 11 May 2017.[4][1]

Valeriia Hontareva
Валерія Гонтарева
Valeriia Hontareva in 2015
10th Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine
In office
19 June 2014 – 11 May 2017[lower-alpha 1][1]
Preceded byStepan Kubiv
Succeeded byYakiv Smoliy (acting)[1]
Personal details
Born (1964-10-20) 20 October 1964
Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine,
Children2 sons
Alma materKyiv Polytechnic Institute
Kyiv National Economic University
OccupationBanker
ProfessionBanker

Early life and career

Hontareva was born on 20 October 1964 in Dnipropetrovsk.[5] She graduated in 1987 from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and in 1997 from Kyiv National Economic University with a master's degree in Economics.[5]

After obtaining her degree in 1987, she was a junior researcher at the Ukrainian Centre for Standardization and Metrology for two years, and from 1989 to 1993, Hontareva worked as a design engineer in the institute "Hiprostrommashyna".[6] In 1993 Hontareva started her career in the financial sector and she held top positions in the Kyiv branches of ING Bank and Societe Generale.[5][7]

In 1996 she became director of resource management at Societe Generale in Ukraine and in 2001 deputy chairman of ING Bank (in 2007 for six months first deputy).[6] From 2007 to 2014, she served as Chairwoman of then Investment Capital Ukraine (now ICU), Kyiv based financial group.

She officially sold her stakes in the company before becoming governor of the NBU.[8] However, there were controversial discussions about the independence of her policy due to her close relation with the president Poroshenko as he hired for the sale of his Roshen holding her former company ICU beside Rothschild Group.[9]

In her official public income declaration for 2013, Hontareva stated an income of 3.884.679 UAH, a car park with an Infinity FX35, a Porsche Cayenne, a Porsche Panamera, a Toyota Landcruiser and several real estates.[10] According to Hontareva's e-declaration for 2016, her total income amounted to UAH 57 mln (the most of which was due to the third tranche of selling her shares in ICU Holdings Limited - UAH 52,57 mln).[11]

Chair of the National Bank of Ukraine

On 19 June 2014 Hontareva replaced Stepan Kubiv as Chairwoman of the National Bank of Ukraine.[12] Hontareva is the first female to lead the bank.[13]

For the time of Hontareva's work in the NBU, hryvnia depreciated almost three times.[14]

International financial institutions representatives state that the biggest reform achievement in Ukraine under Hontareva's rule has been the clean-up of the banking system with the grand finale of the nationalisation of Privatbank.[15]

Hontareva had reduced the size of the central bank bureaucracy from 12,000 to 5,000. She has let the country's currency, the hryvnia, float, which stabilized the economy. And, above all, in an effort to clean up the ailing banking sector, she has named 87 banks insolvent with about 60 percent of the sector's assets.[16] According to the EBRD managing director (Eastern Europe and the Caucasus) Francis Malige, Hontareva is No. 1 changemaker in Ukraine.[17]

The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has opened criminal proceedings in a case, which according to them involved Hontareva's Deputy Kateryna Rozhkova, regarding the 'Platinum Bank's' withdrawal from the market. Hontareva was accused of deliberately bringing the bank to bankruptcy, and of speculation on the growth of the dollar exchange rate. The rallies from the allegedly deceived depositors of the failed banks repeatedly gathered outside the National Bank of Ukraine.[18] Hontareva has a good reputation among professionals as the Ukrainian central bank for the first time started to act independently from the interests of oligarchs and politicians. She fulfilled modern monetary policy similar to the policy of the European Central Bank or the United States’ Federal Reserve System. On the contrary, the predecessors of Hontareva on the first hand wanted to maintain the stable national currency exchange rate.[19]

On 10 April 2017, Hontareva submitted her resignation. On 11 May 2017, while still not formally dismissed, she left the bank and Deputy Governor Yakiv Smoliy took over her duties.[20]

“My mission is complete. First, the country has moved to a flexible exchange rate and implemented the new monetary policy of inflation targeting. Secondly, the banking system has been cleansed of insolvent banks, and its future resilience strengthened. Thirdly, the National Bank has been completely transformed, all the processes have been reset and today our central bank is a strong modern organisation,” Valeriia Hontareva concluded during her resignation announcement.[21]

During her nearly three years in office, the National Bank headed by Valeriia Hontareva has succeeded in stabilising the macroeconomic situation, fundamentally transforming the banking sector landscape and building a modern central bank despite war and political instability, deep economic crisis and empty government treasury.[22]

On 1 October 2018 Hontareva became a member of the Institute of Global Affairs, an initiative of the London School of Economics.[23]

28.03.2019 "In particular, Gontareva, together with ICU top manager Konstantin Stetsenko, is charged with 'assisting in a criminal organization and assisting in the illegal seizure of another's property – monetary funds of PJSC Agrarian Fund worth UAH 2.069 billion through the conclusion by JSC Brokbusinessbank of fake contracts of sale and purchase of government domestic loan bonds with the Agrarian Fund under direct repurchase agreements with the National Bank of Ukraine," Forum Daily reported.[24]

Private life

Hontareva is married and has two sons;[5] Anton born in 1988 and Nikita born in 2000.[25] 2018 she moved to London.[26]

Notes
  1. Still not formally dismissed but duties were taken over by Deputy Governor Yakiv Smoliy (she had announced her resignation on 10 April 2017).

References
  1. Williams, Matthias (10 May 2017). "Ukraine central bank post in political limbo as Gontareva leaves". Reuters. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  2. "Ukraine crisis: EU deal to be signed on 27 June". BBC News Online. 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 19 June 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  3. "Chairwomen of the National Bank of Ukrain: The former owners of PrivatBank could face criminal charges". UAWire. 24 February 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  4. Williams, Matthias; Polityuk, Pavel; Rao, Sujata (10 April 2017). "After praise and death threats, Ukraine's central bank governor quits". Reuters. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  5. (in Ukrainian) Top 10 facts about the new Governor NBU - Valeriia Hontareva, news.24tv.ua (19 June 2014)
  6. Команда Петра Порошенка. Перші призначення [Team Poroshenko. The first appointment]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  7. "Ukraine president gets parliament boost for peace plan". The West Australian. Agence France-Presse/Yahoo! News. 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  8. Interfax-Ukraine (5 April 2016). "Gontareva 'has no relation to ICU business after selling stake in 2014'". Kyiv Post.
  9. "Rothschild Trust confirms Poroshenko blind trust deed for Roshen". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  10. "Declaration of property and income" (PDF). Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  11. https://bank.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=46293367&cat_id=55838
  12. "Ukraine crisis: EU deal to be signed on 27 June". BBC News Online. 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 19 June 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  13. "Ukraine president gets parliament boost for peace plan". The West Australian. Agence France-Presse/Yahoo! News. 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  14. http://uacrisis.org/55140-nbu-gontareva
  15. http://www.fdiintelligence.com/Special-Reports/Ukraine-s-banking-sector-seeks-a-new-normal
  16. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/she-fixed-ukraines-economy----and-was-run-out-of-her-job-by-death-threats/2017/05/05/2f556f40-2f90-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html
  17. http://finance.liga.net/banks/2017/4/11/articles/52827.htm Francis Malige
  18. https://en.hromadske.ua/posts/key-decisions-from-the-outgoing-head-of-the-ukrainian-national-bank-valeriya-gontareva
  19. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/ukraine-zentralbankerin-gontarjewa-wie-man-einen-sumpf-trocken-legt-a-1142880.html
  20. Williams, Matthias (10 May 2017). "Ukraine central bank post in political limbo as Gontareva leaves". Reuters. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  21. https://bank.gov.ua/control/en/publish/article?art_id=46817038&cat_id=76291
  22. https://bank.gov.ua/control/en/publish/article?art_id=46817038&cat_id=76291
  23. Read more on UNIAN: https://economics.unian.info/10316583-ex-nbu-head-gontareva-becomes-fellow-at-institute-of-global-affairs.html
  24. https://www.unian.info/politics/10496631-blow-to-poroshenko-lozhkin-gontareva-paseniuk-filatov-served-with-charges-over-billion-worth-fraud-with-kurchenko.html
  25. Син глави Нацбанку купається у вині, а донька Яреми полюбляє "селфі" (in Ukrainian). 24 June 2014. Archived from the original on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  26. https://ru.tsn.ua/ukrayina/eks-glava-nbu-gontareva-pereehala-zhit-v-london-1244724.html
Business positions
Preceded by
Stepan Kubiv		 Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine
2014-2017		 Succeeded by
Yakiv Smoliy (acting)
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