KIEV, Feb. 23 – Parliament has rejected bill No. 1800 on pawn shops and their activities.

Only 164 lawmakers backed the document at first reading on Thursday, while at least 226 supporting votes is required to pass a bill.

Secretary of the parliamentary committee for financial policy and bank operations Maskym Poliakov said that at present the pawn shop segment in Ukraine is regulated only by bylaws. In 2016 a total of 467 pawn shops and around 4,500 of their branches were operated in the country. Assets of pawn shops in the past two years doubled, to UAH 3.3 billion.