Financial Monitoring Without Exceptions: A New Reality for Banks and Businesses in Ukraine
Financial monitoring in Ukraine is evolving and developing in line with European legislation and is increasingly expanding into the activities of various sectors of the economy, no longer limited exclusively to banking institutions. This was stated by Hanna Horbenko, Head of the Ukrainian Compliance Association NGO and Director of the Compliance and Financial Monitoring Department at JSC “OTP Bank,” who moderated the National Finmon Forum 2026.
“Tools and approaches to financial monitoring and compliance will continue to develop and improve. Today, they form the foundation of trust in the financial system and provide protection for the economy against shadow schemes. This is a kind of ‘immunity’ against violations of the law that safeguards the state and society,” commented Hanna Horbenko.
The event was organized and jointly held in Kyiv by the Ukrainian Compliance Association and LIGA ZAKON. It was attended by business representatives, and speakers included representatives of the regulator, members of parliament, compliance officers of systemically important banks, reporting entities (primary financial monitoring entities), international lawyers, and analysts working within the evaluation process.
The forum addressed issues of risk assessment at various levels, examined common business mistakes and the grounds for inspections by law enforcement agencies, and discussed drop schemes as well as new approaches to restricting banking operations aimed at combating financial “mules.” Representatives of the banking sector explained how customer risk profiles are formed, the roles of auditors, lawyers, and financial intermediaries, what information is shared between entities, and why different participants may assess the same transaction differently. Currency control and international payments were also key topics, including typical errors in foreign economic activity, the role of documentation and intermediaries, and the reasons for possible delays in banking transactions. The use of AI in financial monitoring and the existence of cryptocurrency in Ukraine were also discussed.
Forum participants concluded that the need to comply with EU standards creates a new reality for all supervised entities. In particular, the requirement to actively combat money laundering is transforming the approaches used by banks and primary financial monitoring entities, increasingly impacting business operations and unifying financial monitoring standards across different sectors of the economy.
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Public Joint Stock Company OTP Bank is a subsidiary of OTP Bank, which is the largest independent Central-Eastern-European banking group. JSC OTP Bank is one of the largest domestic banks, a recognized leader in the financial sector of Ukraine. The Bank provides a full range of financial services to corporate and private customers, as well as to small and medium enterprises. The bank entered the Ukrainian market in 1998, and since then it enjoys a staunch reputation of socially responsible, reliable and stable institution providing its consumers with services of European quality standard.
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