Ukraine National Commission on Securities and Stock Market chair promotes funded pensions and new investable instruments including Ukrposhta shares

In an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Ukraine National Commission on Securities and Stock Market Chairman Ruslan Magomedov argued that an accumulative pension system should become the main source of long-term funding for the real economy, saying the solidarity pension system cannot sustain rising budget obligations. He said moving to a funded model would allow a reduction in the unified social contribution (USC) deduction and ease pressure on the state budget. Magomedov highlighted the challenge of where pension assets should be invested, warning that concentrating funds in government bonds would raise the budget’s debt-servicing costs through interest payments. He called for additional reliable investment instruments that do not compete with the Ministry of Finance’s borrowing needs, pointing to dividend-paying shares in profitable state-owned companies as one option and naming Ukrposhta as a potential example. He also linked pension reform to broader capital market development for reconstruction, arguing Ukraine needs portfolio instruments that are familiar to European and global investors and can be made accessible via international settlement infrastructure such as Euroclear and Clearstream, including arrangements that allow foreign investors to buy Ukrainian securities without opening accounts in Ukraine; he noted that a link already exists between the National Depository of Ukraine (NDU) and the Polish central securities depository KDPW to facilitate moving Ukrainian securities to Poland.