Sayenko Kharenko acted as the Ukrainian legal counsel to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on its entry into the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the Ukrainian central bank.

The 1992 ISDA Master Agreement will be used as a basis for the entry into USD-UAH swaps within a USD 500 million swap facility agreed between the EBRD and the NBU earlier this year. The USD-UAH swap facility was set up to increase availability of Ukrainian currency (UAH) to the local businesses impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. It will enable the EBRD to provide UAH loans to its existing and new clients with a goal to support their urgent liquidity, short-term working capital and trade finance needs. The first USD 30 million swap was executed in June 2020.

The ISDA Master Agreements, published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, are the most commonly used master agreements to document over-the-counter derivative transactions internationally.

“This is an important project for the Ukrainian financial market, particularly in light of the global economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” comments partner Anton Korobeynikov. “To date, this has also been one of a handful of transactions involving a Ukrainian counterparty based on the ISDA Master Agreements. We hope that the recent derivatives reform will increase the number of cross-border derivatives transactions using the globally accepted standard documents and support further developments in the Ukrainian market for derivatives.”

Sayenko Kharenko’s team advising the EBRD consisted of partners Nazar Chernyavsky and Anton Korobeynikov, along with senior associate Dmytro Vasylyna.

Earlier this year, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the law “On Amendments to Certain Legal Acts to Facilitate Attraction of Investments and to Introduce New Financial Instruments”, which has been developed with substantial input from the EBRD and Sayenko Kharenko.