WASHINGTON, August 07./ITAR-TASS/. The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a US$500 million operation to finance a loan to support reforms in Ukraine's banking sector, the WB said in a statement on Thursday .

“We are helping the Ukrainian authorities to implement an urgent set of measures aimed at returning the country to a sustainable growth path," the statement quoted Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine, as saying.

"In particular, reform measures supported by this loan - the first in a series of two - will strengthen the financial, operational, and regulatory capacity of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) for the resolution of insolvent banks. At the same time, the operation will support efforts to improve the solvency of the banking system through independent diagnostic assessments of the largest 35 banks in the country. Finally, this operation will assist the authorities in strengthening the supervisory framework to make the banking sector more efficient, transparent, and resilient," the statement said.

"This operation is part of the World Bank Group’s broader crisis-response support package announced in March this year, which aims to provide Ukraine with up to US$3.5 billion by the end of 2014," the World Bank said in a press release.