Black Rock is an international American investment company with representation in 30 countries and 70 offices in South and North America, Eurasia and Africa, with headquarters in New York. The corporation is one of the largest in the world and has been in existence since 1988. In May 2023, BlackRock announced that it will cooperate with Ukraine and its businesses under a Memorandum of Understanding (“BlackRock FMA”). What should we expect?

About BlackRock

BlackRok Corporation is America’s largest international investment company. Today, it has over $37 billion in wealth and $9.4 trillion in assets under management. It is among the top 3 competing giant companies in the US.

The head of the corporation Lawrence Fink and the other 7 founders of BlackRock decided to create a company that would invest clients’ money, and based on the strategy, would reduce the probability of losses.

By the way, Lawrence Fink came up with this strategy based on a bad experience when his department lost 100 million. This mistake brought him experience that he still uses. Based on his experience, he created a program called “Aladdin” which is nothing but artificial intelligence. Based on its algorithms, the program analyzes the market situation and controls the entire operation of the company, up to the conclusion of transactions.

Since 1998, the company became public (14% of its shares were traded on stock exchanges). But Lawrence Fink was and remains the head of the stock exchange, with 16% of its shares.

BlackRock owns more than 30-percent of the stock in thousands of corporations, while the rest of the investors in those corporations are small investors. Thus, Black Rock controls a huge portion of the market.

Black Rock’s main criticism is environmental damage, because it owns part of the oil and gas companies. And like any major player, Black Rock wants to control all or most of the market.

Many former top executives are in the offices of U.S. presidents. BlackRock is linked to the Fed, which chose BlackRock to buy government securities starting in 2020, and BlackRock has been providing consulting services to the Fed.

Why did BlackRock choose Ukraine?

BlackRock in Ukraine decided to open a branch in Ukraine because there are either no such large corporations in this country, or they are few and not monopolistic.

Moreover, after the war started, many corporations decided to leave Ukraine. After all, if they stayed, they would lose their investments as the solvent population left or became poorer. In February-July 2022, the situation was worse than it is now. Now Ukraine is launching its economy, for sure investors will have benefits. And wages in Ukraine are much lower than in the US or EU.

It turns out that the company will get a new market with cheap labor, without strong competitors and that’s at least. Ukraine will benefit from BlackRock’s cooperation for the good of the country’s economy.

BlackRock’s plans in Ukraine

The President of Ukraine (Volodymyr Zelensky) said even before the war that investments, not loans, were needed. The largest publicly traded investment corporation in the world is not a bad investment, especially in times of war.

Mark Buben, head of BlackRock Continental Europe (BlackRock Continental Europe), spoke with Vladimir Zelensky on a video conference in December 2022. It was noted that now the company provides consulting services for free. In the future, the corporation will expand to the Ukrainian market, and after the end of the war will create special funds for foreign investments.

It will also be necessary to create new financial instruments, not only an investment fund. BlackRock can attract investors to Ukraine by its example.

Although the main concern about attracting finance should lie with the government of Ukraine. There are several areas in the development of which BlackRock will be particularly active in attracting investments:

Energy;

• infrastructure;
• agriculture;
• information technology;
• manufacturing industry.

These are precisely the sectors in which Ukrainians excel. So these spheres are promising, investment portfolios will definitely grow.

It should not be excluded that BlackRock subsidiaries will operate in Ukraine.

BlackRock’s impact on the Ukrainian market

Financial experts said that the infusion of foreign investments can turn Ukrainian companies into international ones.

Now Black Rock cannot operate in Ukraine, as the country does not have the necessary legal framework to protect investors. And the corporation cannot jeopardize its clients and their deposits. Norms should be prepared together with American specialists. Thus, because of Black Rock’s requirements, Ukraine will improve its regulatory framework. There will be a better monetary policy, tougher ways to fight corruption and money laundering, financing of terrorism and so on.

Specialists believe that such a base should be prepared before the end of the war, and then gradually implemented.

Our AnyExchange service is also fighting money laundering and will continue to fight corruption.

What knowledge and skills you need to work with BlackRock

After opening a new branch, the corporation will be looking for employees. It is important that they know Ukrainian and English. At the moment there are more than 250 vacancies in other countries, looking mainly for specialists in the financial sphere. There will be a need for information specialists for the formation of databases. There may even be new specialties related to finance, and, of course, brokers. Preference will be given to specialists with experience working abroad or in international organizations. 

And new customers, once the fund is formed and funds are raised, will be offered categories and options of projects to invest in. The company will most likely accept cryptocurrency, which you can buy in our service “AnyExchange” and verify your assets on AML. Once verified, you will receive international certificates and can present them if required. This way your investments will be approved and accepted. And after making transactions, the service will help you to instantly fix profits in any currency (except rubles).

Conclusion

Black Rock is very important for Ukraine as a partner and image ally. If such a serious exchange invests in the country and opens an investment fund, it means that it has found a new gold mine there. However, in addition to investments, it is another incentive for our country to strive to meet EU standards: in legal, financial and social spheres.