\u201cThe Commission has done its part: we have revised the rules, simplified the procedure, and shortened the processing times. Registering a base prospectus or a series takes up to seven business days, and documents are submitted online. Our goal is for the Commission\u2019s main registration procedures to take about two weeks, rather than months. Now, together with other government agencies, we need to structure the entire process so that a local community can actually benefit from this tool. Therefore, the next step is to select specific projects and guide them through the entire process together: from a city council\u2019s decision to the issuance of bonds. \u201cWe need our first successful case, and then we will scale this practice nationwide,\u201d<\/em> said Oleksii Semeniuk, Chairman of the NSSMC.<\/p>\n Why local communities need bonds<\/strong><\/p>\n Local communities need additional resources for recovery and development. Municipal bonds make it possible to raise these resources on the capital market \u2014 from banks, institutional investors, and citizens themselves.<\/p>\n This is yet another channel for raising capital, alongside budgetary funding, bank loans, and funds from international partners. For the community, it is an opportunity to diversify its sources of funding and raise funds directly for specific development projects.<\/p>\n The social impact is no less important. When residents invest in projects in their city, their involvement in local community development increases. At the same time, this model requires maximum transparency regarding the purposes of fundraising, the terms of the issuance, and the risks to investors.<\/p>\n The participants emphasized that, first and foremost, bonds should be used to finance projects with a clear economic model: power generation, energy conservation, and social housing. Projects without a direct return on investment require a more in-depth analysis of a local community\u2019s financial capacity.<\/p>\n International experience demonstrates the potential of this tool. The municipal bond market in the U.S. is worth USD 4.5 trillion, and in Poland, USD 12.2 billion. In France and the Scandinavian countries, there are joint agencies that help even small local communities raise funds. Participants believe that similar support mechanisms should also be developed in Ukraine.<\/p>\n What has already been done<\/strong><\/p>\n The meeting was a continuation of the NSSMC\u2019s systematic efforts to develop the municipal bond market. Prior to this, the Commission had worked with local communities on a case-by-case basis: presenting the instrument\u2019s potential, providing advice, and helping them navigate the process. This meeting takes that work to a systematic level \u2014 involving local communities, government institutions, and market participants.<\/p>\n The Commission has already taken the first step \u2014 it has reviewed its own regulations and significantly reduced the part of the procedure that depends directly on the regulator.<\/strong><\/p>\n On 29 June, the Commission updated the regulations governing the issuance of local government bonds \u2014 the first comprehensive revision of the rules in eight years.<\/p>\n Specifically: Thus, the Commission\u2019s main registration procedures should take approximately two weeks. The NSSMC\u2019s goal is to ensure that the complexity of the regulatory process is no longer a reason to abandon this instrument. <\/strong><\/p>\n The next step is to provide practical support to local communities. Each community participating in the pilot project will be assigned a dedicated specialist from the NSSMC, who will guide it through the process from a local council\u2019s decision to the registration of the issue. The Commission also plans to publish standard templates for a decision on the issuance, the base prospectus, the final terms, and a checklist for completing the procedure.<\/p>\n In this way, the Commission aims to lower the entry barrier as much as possible: a community with a high-quality project and the financial capacity to carry it out should not be deterred from issuing bonds simply because the procedure seems complicated or unfamiliar.<\/p>\n What to do next<\/strong><\/p>\n Updating the NSSMC\u2019s regulatory procedure is one of the elements of a comprehensive municipal borrowing mechanism. The next step is coordinated work between the Commission, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Parliament, the Office of the President, the Association of Ukrainian Cities, and local communities themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n During the meeting, the participants identified issues that need to be addressed jointly: long-term budget planning, terms of local borrowing, taxation, the routing of borrowed funds through the Treasury, and the coordination of procedures among government agencies.<\/p>\n The common goal is not just to simplify individual steps, but to create a comprehensive and predictable process for the local community \u2014 from a decision to seek funding to the receipt of funds for a specific project.<\/strong><\/p>\n Long-term planning.<\/strong> Local community investment projects span many years, so the participants discussed how to improve the terms of local borrowing, taking into account the long-term nature of such projects. They also discussed current borrowing limits and approaches to assessing payback periods, particularly for social and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n Tax provisions.<\/strong> Unlike OVDPs (domestic government bonds), income earned by citizens from municipal bonds is subject to taxation, which affects the cost of raising funds for a local community. The participants proposed exploring possible incentives for long-term investors.<\/p>\n Coordination among government agencies.<\/strong> The issuance of municipal bonds involves the community\u2019s interaction with several government institutions. Participants proposed developing a \u201cone-stop shop\u201d model with a clear division of responsibilities and a straightforward process for the issuer.<\/p>\n Special attention was paid to the financial capacity of local communities and the terms of local borrowing. The joint task of the NSSMC, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, and other relevant institutions is to establish guidelines that are clear to local communities: under what conditions borrowing is financially sound, how a project should be structured, and what the step-by-step process for a community should be.<\/strong><\/p>\n The powers of military administrations regarding local borrowing and the mechanism for the uninterrupted transfer of borrowed funds through Treasury accounts also require joint review.<\/p>\n The role of market participants and community education<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the key challenges today is a lack of practical experience. For many local communities, municipal bonds remain a new and complex instrument. That is why the Commission sees its role not only in regulation but also in shaping best practices for their use.<\/p>\n Medium-sized communities with growth potential require special support. It is important for them to engage professional market participants who can provide advice, help structure the issuance, determine its terms, and seek out investors.<\/p>\n The NSSMC, the Association of Ukrainian Cities, and civil society organizations will hold joint educational events for local communities participating in pilot projects.<\/p>\n Participants also noted the potential for raising funds from citizens, as demonstrated by the experience with war bonds. In the future, community residents should also have access to a simple and straightforward mechanism for investing in the development of their own city \u2014 provided there is complete transparency regarding the risks, the terms of the issuance, and the use of the funds raised.<\/p>\n The needs of de-occupied and temporarily occupied local communities<\/strong><\/p>\n Separately, the participants discussed the needs of communities that have lost a significant portion of their economic base and population due to the war and will require substantial resources for recovery, particularly for affordable rental housing.<\/p>\n Local communities already have projects ready for funding. For example, a social housing project in the city of Mariupol. The participants agreed that financial instruments for such local communities require separate consideration.<\/p>\n Conclusions and next steps<\/strong><\/p>\n The main outcome of the meeting was a shift from discussing the potential of municipal bonds to working on specific local community projects.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Commission has already updated its part of the procedure: it has simplified the rules, moved the document flow online, and shortened registration times. Now, the NSSMC, together with other government institutions, the Association of Ukrainian Cities, and local communities themselves, will work to ensure that the entire municipal borrowing process is clear, predictable, and practically accessible to cities.<\/strong><\/p>\n At the meeting, the participants agreed:<\/p>\n \u25cf The NSSMC will assign a dedicated specialist to each pilot community to oversee the process; The next step is to select specific pilot projects and put the entire process into practice. The next specific goal is the first successful graduation under the new rules. It should serve as a practical model that can later be scaled up for local communities throughout Ukraine.<\/strong><\/p>\n The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) held a working meeting dedicated to the development of municipal bonds as a tool for financing local communities. The meeting brought together…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":1184681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1184673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-novina-na-golovny","category-rozvitok-fnansovogo-rinka","category-tsnn-paperi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184673"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184725,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184673\/revisions\/1184725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2.jpg-1024x683.jpeg\")
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\n\u25cf The entire process has been moved online; paper-based document flow is no longer required;
\n\u25cf A base prospectus has been introduced: the community can raise funds in tranches, in accordance with the project\u2019s implementation phases;
\n\u25cf Registration of a base prospectus or a tranche takes up to 7 business days;
\n\u25cf Report for \u201cdelivery against payment\u201d transactions \u2014 up to 5 business days instead of 25;
\n\u25cf If a community has received a list of deficiencies and corrected them, the procedure does not trigger a new round of comments.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-1-1024x683.jpeg\")
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\n\u25cf The Commission will prepare model documents and a checklist for the bond issuance process;
\n\u25cf The Association of Ukrainian Cities will compile a structured list of legislative and regulatory issues for joint review with the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, relevant committees of the Verkhovna Rada, and the Office of the President;
\n\u25cf The parties will develop a \u201csingle window\u201d model;
\n\u25cf The possibility of strengthening advisory and financial support for local communities will be analyzed;
\n\u25cf A mechanism for the uninterrupted flow of funds through the Treasury, with the assistance of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, will be developed;
\n\u25cf Joint educational events will be held for communities participating in pilot projects.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/10.jpg-1024x683.jpeg\")
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