It’s award season for more than movies. It even extends to central banking. The magazine CentralBanking.com, which covers all aspects of the field, presented over a dozen awards on March 25.
The National Bank of Ukraine was named best currency manager for its actions to reduce currency denominations while upgrading its bank notes and coins. It is the second time the NBU has won an award from the journal.
The website magazine explained the predicament the country found itself in by 2014, when even more than 20 years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, little had yet changed in terms of currency management.
Within a year from then, its new currency, the hryvnia, had declined by 70% against the dollar, and the National Bank decided to revamp its entire system at once. After consulting with commercial banks, other central banks and the public, it decreased the number of denominations in circulation from 16 to 12. Among the factors considered were frequency of usage for denominations, handling costs, and public benefits. Ninety percent of the public were in favor of discontinuing the lowest denominations.
