Andriy Pyshnyi

Andriy Hryhorovych Pyshnyi (Андрій Григорович Пишний; born 26 October 1974) is a Ukrainian banker and politician. He is the chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine and a member of the NSDC of Ukraine.

Pyshnyi is a former CEO of the Ukrainian state-owned bank Oschadbank.

Early life
Pyshnyi was born on 26 October 1974 in the village of Dobrovody, Zbarazh Raion, Ternopil Oblast.

In 1991–1996, he studied at the Law Faculty of Chernivtsi University, where he met Arseniy Yatsenyuk. After graduation, in 1996–2000, he remained there as a trainee teacher and assistant at the Department of Constitutional, Administrative and Financial Law.

Since 1998, Pyshnyi has headed the Pravkon law firm in Chernivtsi and was its co-owner. In 1998–2005, Andrii Pyshnyi was a co-owner (2%) of Inter-Chernivtsi TV and Radio Company LLC together with local politician and journalist Vasyl Zabrodskyi (he owned 98%). Later, the company was acquired by the structures of pro-Russian oligarchs Dmytro Firtash and Valeriy Khoroshkovsky.

Political career
In May 2007, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. He was dismissed from the post by a decree of President Viktor Yushchenko in June 2009.

In 2010, he focused on Arseniy Yatsenyuk's political party's project Front for Change, where he headed the party control committee. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he became the deputy chief of staff of the Batkivshchyna party, and in December he became the leader of the Yatsenyuk group in the Batkivshchyna faction and the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on regulations.

On 15 June 2013, after the merger of the Front for Change and the Batkivshchyna party, he was elected deputy leader of Batkivshchyna.

Banking career
In 2000, he headed the legal department of Oschadbank and moved to Kyiv.

During 2003-2007, he was the first deputy chairman of the board of Oschadbank and the chairman of Oschadbank from 2004 to May 2005.

In 2005, he graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine.

In 2006, Pyshnyi agreed the bank's development strategy which included changes in the bank's management and introduction of independent directors to the Supervisory Board.

From March to May 2007, he was the first deputy chairman of the Board of OJSC Ukreximbank.

Since 26 March 2014, he has been the chairman of the board of JSC Oschadbank.

Since 2 August 2019, Pyshnyi's powers at Oschadbank were extended for the next 5 years.

On 7 October 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the election of Andriy Pyshnyi as the head of the National Bank of Ukraine. 290 MPs voted for the decision. On October 10, 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially introduced the newly elected NBU Governor Andriy Pyshnyy to the NBU team.

Public activity
In 2009 (at the age of 34), Pyshnyi partially lost his hearing. He is the initiator of a number of social projects including the NGO Vidchuvay, established together with Andriy Yermak, which helps the adaptation of people who have lost their hearing or were born with hearing impairments. In particular, Oschadbank headed by Pyshnyi became the first in Eastern Europe to open inclusive bank branches for people with impairments.

Pyshnyi is a co-author of the charity project called "Art that Saves" established in collaboration with Art Arsenal and volunteer organizations to help Ukrainian soldiers and residents of the front-line zone of Donbass wounded since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014.

CEO of Oschadbank
After the beginning of the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine in Donbas, Oschadbank officially continued to operate in the territories controlled by the DPR and LPR at least until December 1, 2014 when it ceased all its activities within the territories.

Pyshnyi's performance as the chairman of the board of Oschadbank has been subject to various assessments. He was noted for his active work on the repayment of the bank's bad loans and the transformation of the bank itself. However, the state bank's equity decreased from UAH 20.5 billion (January 1, 2014) to UAH 19.6 billion (January 1, 2019).

According to Obozrevatel, in 2018, Oschadbank showed the lowest return on equity - 0.6% with the highest level of non-performing loans - 63%, while the return on equity of Ukrgasbank in 2018 was 13.5%, and PrivatBank - 46.5%.

Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine
Pyshnyi was officially introduced as the newly elected head of the National Bank on 10 October 2022, by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Pishnyi declared macro-financial stability, the effectiveness of macroeconomic policy and international negotiations, a new dialogue between the National Bank and the government, and opening access to sources of state funding as his priorities.

In December 2022, Andriy Pyshnyi made his first visit as NBU Governor to Washington, D.C., to meet with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

As part of the Ukrainian government, Mr. Pyshnyi has been a member of IMF missions to Ukraine. The cooperation resulted in Ukraine's successful completion of the Monitoring Program with the involvement of the IMF Board and the approval by the IMF Board of Directors of a four-year Extended Fund Facility for Ukraine in the amount of USD 15.6 billion. The funds provided by the program are part of a large package of financial assistance to Ukraine amounting to USD 115 billion. The IMF's decision was called historic in Ukraine, as it is the first time the Fund has agreed to provide financing to a country in a full-scale war. To do this, the IMF changed its internal lending rules, which allow it to help countries facing extremely high uncertainty. And now this precedent can be used by other countries suffering from external factors.

On June 29, 2023, the IMF Board of Executive Directors approved the first review of the Extended Fund Facility program. Ukraine received the second tranche of USD 886 million. Due to, among other things, the IMF's support, Ukraine's international reserves reached a record high in the history of independent Ukraine in June 2023 - USD 39 billion.

According to Ukrainian analysts, Andriy Pyshnyi managed to reset the NBU's relations with the Ministry of Finance and restore the interaction between fiscal and monetary policies. This helped to revitalize the domestic debt market. Since the beginning of 2023, the NBU has managed to avoid emission financing of the budget deficit.

In January 2024, Andriy Pyshnyi was recognized as the best central bank governor in the world and Europe by the British financial publication The Banker based on the results of his work in 2023. The Banker Central Banker of the Year award is given annually to the heads of central banks who have done the best job of stabilizing their country's economy and stimulating its growth. The publication noted Andriy Pyshnyi's crucial role in maintaining macrofinancial stability in Ukraine, as well as the NBU's proactive policy to strengthen its resilience even in the face of a full-scale war.

In March 2024, Andriy Pyshnyi received the Governor of the Central Bank award at the Central Banking Awards 2024. The British magazine Central Banking presents the award, evaluating the activities of central banks and financial regulators over the previous year.

Among the main achievements of the National Bank of Ukraine, the publication highlighted the preservation of Ukraine's economic stability despite the war unleashed by Russia. In particular:
 * growing confidence in the hryvnia: according to the NBU, term deposits of individuals in the national currency increased by 28% in 11 months of 2023;
 * almost doubling of borrowings in the domestic debt market;
 * reduction of inflation from 26.6% to 5.1% in 11 months of 2023;
 * abandonment of monetary financing and transition from a fixed exchange rate to its managed flexibility, which led to a reduction in the spread between cash and non-cash market rates.

This is the first time that both expert publications - Central Banking and The Banker - have simultaneously honored the central bank governor with the highest award.

Sanctions work
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pyshnyi has been a member of the Yermak-McFaul Expert Group on Russian Sanctions and advocates the recognition of Russia as a terrorist state.

As head of the NBU, Andriy Pyshnyi also initiated a separate area of the national bank's activities related to supporting Ukraine's sanctions policy against Russia. The NBU Governor has repeatedly publicly advocated the withdrawal of international banking groups from the Russian market and discussed this issue with representatives of European central banks, including the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde.

Andriy Pyshnyi advocates for the inclusion of the Russian Federation in the "black list" FATF (an international intergovernmental body whose purpose is to combat money laundering). Pyshnyi's proposals were taken into account in the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine: "On the Application of Sectoral Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions) to Financial Institutions of the Russian Federation".

POWER BANKING project
After the start of massive Russian missile attacks on the energy system, the National Bank, under Pyshnyi's leadership, created the POWER BANKING project in December 2022, a unified network of bank branches across the country that can operate even in a blackout. The network includes almost 2,400 bank branches in 400 cities and towns.

Since the beginning of 2023, the NBU has managed to avoid emission financing of the budget deficit.

Private life

 * Father - Hryhoriy Pyshnyi (born 1947) — deputy general director of the Cheremosh travel agency. He headed a treatment center for people with alcohol addiction and was the deputy chairman of the board of the machine-building plant.
 * Mother - Svitlana Pyshna (1949-1996) — worked in the city police department. She divorced her husband when her son was 11 years old. Received the rank of major a few days before her death due to cancer.
 * Wife — Lyudmila Pyshna (born 1973) — university professor.

The couple has two daughters — Svitlana (born 1998) and Daryna (born 2003).