Depositors to be Indemnified, Age Notwithstanding

Ukraine’s Constitutional Court has found unconstitutional the age limitation imposed on depositors with the former USSR Oshchadbank (savings bank) seeking to recover their savings. The Constitutional Court handed down a ruling to this effect after the issue was taken to court by Verkhovna Rada Ombudsman Nina Karpachova. According to Interfax-Ukraine, a statement released October 16 reads that the Constitutional Court has found limitations, under which the depositors will be indemnified gradually, with the sum of compensation depending on the amount of the deposit and financial capabilities of the state budget, to be in line with the fundamental law. Judge Mykola Korniyenko stressed at the following press conference that the Constitutional Court thinks the limitations are justified, for if they were found unconstitutional, all deposits would have to be paid immediately. He recalled that according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, as of January 1992, the former USSR Oshchadbank in Ukraine had taken in 84.3 billion Soviet rubles, the equivalent of UAH 130 billion. The judge emphasized that paying such an amount would bring unwanted consequences and violation of other citizens’ rights such as inflation and pay arrears in the budget-funded sector.