AUK Talks with Andriy Pyshnyy, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine

American University Kyiv was honored to host Andriy Pyshnyy, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), for an inspiring guest lecture and open discussion with our students and academic community.

The session offered key insights into maintaining Ukraine’s financial stability during wartime, navigating macroeconomic trends, and managing the national financial system amid unprecedented global challenges.

Reflecting on the NBU’s crisis management response to the full-scale invasion, Andriy Pyshnyy (Central Banker of the Year 2024, Global and Europe) shared powerful metaphors on emergency economic leadership,

"A tourniquet is applied to stop bleeding and save life, but if it is overstretched, it can be dangerous. After a full-scale invasion, the NBU was forced to abandon inflation targeting, implement strict restrictions and switch to anti-crisis management mode. We needed to stop this "bleeding", because at that moment all the shocks materialized simultaneously. Millions of Ukrainians became migrants or internally displaced persons, and businesses stopped. For any head of the central bank, this is a nightmare — a "perfect storm".

I want to pay tribute to the National Bank team. When I joined in October 2022, it was my lot to react to the first blackouts and to be responsible for effectively removing this "tourniquet" — moving the economy from a strict anti-crisis regime to recovery mode. As practice shows, we succeeded."

The speaker also emphasized the fundamental difference between the banking system in 2014, when the Russian-Ukrainian war began, and at the time of a full-scale invasion in 2022,

"In 2014, when Russia’s war against Ukraine first began, our banking system was fragile, leading to a wave of bank insolvencies that exacerbated the economic crisis. In contrast, during the 2022 full-scale invasion, the banking system effectively absorbed the shocks of war and began supporting economic recovery within a year. Today, strategic sectors like defense and agribusiness are benefiting from robust lending growth exceeding 30% year-over-year."

During an open discussion with AUK students he also shared key insights into how Ukraine’s financial system operates in wartime, the mechanisms maintaining macroeconomic stability, and the country's major challenges on the global stage.

"You live in an era when Ukraine is forging an experience that the world not only admires, but thoroughly studies. Today, this experience provides central bank governors with invaluable insights into how societies and economies react to unprecedented shocks. We are not theorists; we are practitioners — this is our daily reality. The National Bank is increasingly becoming a donor of resilience and unique expertise under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

International financial support is a critical component of our resilience, but it would have been impossible if Ukraine had not demonstrated its capacity to withstand and recover.

We are currently experiencing one of the most dynamic periods of economic, social, and legislative reform. Conducting reforms during a war can be compared to open-heart surgery on a person running a marathon — and running that marathon at a sprinter's pace. Our goal is to align our financial regulations with EU standards by the end of 2027."

 

We extend our sincere gratitude to Andriy Pyshnyy and the National Bank of Ukraine team for an insightful conversation, profound expertise, and their support of the AUK academic community!

Special thanks to AUK alumnus Dmytro Pylypchuk for his excellent moderation of the event.