RFE/RL: Russian owners of Ukrainian loan companies may face license suspension
An investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, reveals that key owners of two companies in Ukraine's instant-loan sector hold Russian citizenship, potentially breaching Ukrainian banking regulations.
Russian tax documents indicate that the majority of owners of two companies in Ukraine’s instant-loan sector hold Russian citizenship, Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, has found.
This poses a violation of Ukrainian banking regulations that deem such citizenship a security risk, say journalists. Andrii Manucharov owns 90 percent of Prosto Pozyka, while his wife, Natalia Manucharova, owns 90 percent of Time Credit, operating in the war-torn country.
Russian tax records, corresponding to her date of birth, indicate that Manucharova acquired Russian citizenship in April 2015, about three years prior to the establishment of Time Credit. During a phone call, Manucharov dismissed Schemes’ inquiry regarding his Russian citizenship as “nonsense.”
“Don’t fantasize,” he remarked, adding in a follow-up conversation: “You probably need to take some medication.”
The two companies may be scrutinized by the State Security Service following the publication of the Schemes report on 19 July. In a statement to Schemes on 24 July, Dmytro Oliynyk, a deputy chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, said the bank would request the State Security Service and other intelligence agencies to “obtain additional information” regarding whether the companies’ owners hold Russian citizenship.
If the central bank verifies Schemes’ findings, it could suspend the companies’ licenses under Article 48 of Ukraine’s financial services law. According to a May 2022 National Bank of Ukraine regulation, citizens “of the state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine” — specifically Russia — are barred from owning a non-bank financial institution or having any involvement in its operations until the end of martial law.
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