“Our teams quickly developed great mutual trust, and we are already exchanging a good deal of information. With the institutional partnership, we are now taking the next step and emphasising that we plan to cooperate closely in the long term – especially with a view to Ukraine’s potential accession to the EU,” Branson said.

The partnership agreement was signed as part of the NSSMC delegation’s multi-day trip to Germany, which also included a joint workshop with BaFin on investment funds. The two authorities are planning further online workshops in the months ahead on selected topics, including non-state pension funds and supervision of annual financial statements.

Under the institutional partnership, BaFin will support the NSSMC in implementing the acquis communautaire – the body of existing EU legislation. Bilateral institutional partnerships are a tool created by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz) in order to establish and expand effective public administrative structures in selected partner countries. The objective is to support reform processes and modernise administrative structures by fostering practice-oriented cooperation and the exchange of information between German authorities and their partner institutions in other countries.

In addition to work-related discussions with their BaFin colleagues, the NSSMC delegation also visited banks and companies, as well as the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA). Their trip was organised with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, a federal enterprise in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work.