International rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed the long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) of Oschadbank (State Savings Bank of Ukraine) at ‘CCC’ and its local-currency IDR at ‘CCC+’, reflecting the lender’s stable performance under wartime conditions and continued sovereign support.
According to Fitch, Oschadbank’s risk profile remains closely tied to the Ukrainian sovereign, given the bank’s large holdings of government securities and placements at the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). At end-1H25, sovereign exposure accounted for about 44% of assets in government bonds, 9% in NBU deposit certificates, and 5% in placements at the central bank. Loans to state-owned enterprises made up roughly 20% of the portfolio.
Fitch reported that Oschadbank’s impaired loans ratio fell slightly to 22.1% at end-1H25 (from 22.6% in 2024) amid loan growth, while loan-loss reserves covered 77% of impaired loans. The bank’s operating profit to risk-weighted assets improved to 11.4% in 1H25, supported by reversals of loan-loss allowances.
Customer deposits represented 97% of non-equity funding, including a strong retail base (59% of deposits). The loans-to-deposits ratio increased to 38.6% but remains modest.
Following the repayment of a eurobond in March 2025, Oschadbank’s remaining foreign-currency debt consists mainly of a bilateral loan from an international financial institution. Fitch expects the bank to continue servicing all external obligations.
“Operating conditions for Ukrainian banks remain challenging due to the war, but Oschadbank’s performance is supported by NBU policy measures and continued international assistance,” the agency said.
Oschadbank, founded in 1991, is one of Ukraine’s two state-owned systemic banks. With total assets of UAH 479.1 billion (12.3% of sector assets) as of September 2025, it ranks second among 60 Ukrainian banks by total assets. The state owns 100% of the bank through the Ministry of Finance.
Standard Rating has updated the financial stability rating of VUSO Insurance Company (Kyiv) to ‘uaAA’ on the national scale based on the company’s performance in January-September 2025.
According to information posted on the RA website, during this period, the company collected UAH 3.728 billion in gross premiums, which is 49.47% more than during the same period a year earlier.
Revenues from individuals increased by 53.48% to UAH 2.231 billion, while revenues from reinsurers decreased by 12.32% to UAH 32.456 million. Individuals accounted for 59.85% of gross premiums, while reinsurers accounted for 0.87%.
Accrued reinsurance premiums ceded to reinsurance for the nine months of 2025 increased by 47.73% to UAH 417.813 million compared to the same period in 2024, net premiums increased by 49.69% to UAH 3.310 billion, and net earned premiums increased by 43.18% to UAH 2.884 billion.
During the reporting period, VUSO Insurance Company paid out UAH 1.227 billion to its customers, which is 18.16% higher than the amount of insurance payments for the same period in 2024. The payout ratio decreased by 8.72 percentage points to 32.91%.
At the end of the first three quarters of 2025, operating profit increased by 45.81% to UAH 267.938 million, while net profit grew 2.14 times to UAH 201.047 million.
As of 1 October 2025, assets increased by 45.43% to UAH 2.788 billion, equity increased by 25.63% to UAH 949.535 million, liabilities increased by 58.32% to UAH 1.839 billion, cash and cash equivalents grew by 33.90% to UAH 1.016 billion.
The agency also notes that as of the reporting date, VUSO Insurance Company had formed a portfolio of current investments in government bonds in the amount of UAH 462.168 million, which increased the insurer’s level of liquidity, which together covered 80.39% of the company’s liabilities.
VUSO Insurance Company was founded in 2001. It is a member of the Motor Transport Insurance Bureau of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Financial Services Association, a participant in the Agreement on Direct Settlement of Losses, and a member of the Nuclear Insurance Pool.
On Monday, November 3, ANO party leader and likely future Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš signed a coalition agreement with the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party and the Motorists for Themselves political force, Radio Prague International reports, citing European Truth.
After four weeks of negotiations, the parties agreed on the main program goals of the future government, as well as the distribution of ministerial portfolios among the parties.
“The agreement defines political priorities, the number of ministers, and the principles of government personnel formation,” ANO representatives said.
The next step will be to submit proposals for the composition of the government, followed by a vote in parliament.
Tomio Okamura, leader of the SPD, who was nominated jointly by the SPD, ANO, and Motorists, is expected to become speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.
During the election campaign, Okamura repeatedly made anti-Ukrainian statements, in particular regarding the restriction of the rights of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic.
After the election of the speaker of parliament, the current government must resign, which will pave the way for the formation of a new cabinet headed by Babiš.
On October 27, Czech President Petr Pavel officially tasked Andrej Babiš with forming a government after the ANO party won the parliamentary elections on October 3–4, 2025.
ANO received the most votes among all political forces, ahead of the Together coalition and the Social Democrats.
According to preliminary data, Babiš’s cabinet will consist of 15 ministers, half of whom will be appointed by ANO, five by the SPD, and two by the Motorists party.
Andrej Babiš already headed the Czech government in 2017–2021. His ANO party positions itself as “centrist” and advocates strong state support for business. The SPD is known for its Eurosceptic and anti-immigration positions, while the Motorists for Themselves party advocates for the liberalization of traffic rules and lower taxes for the transport sector.
ANO, Babiš, CZECH REPUBLIC, ELECTIONS, GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT, SPD, Томіо Окамура
Insurance company ARX (Kyiv) made payments totaling UAH 50.831 million in January-September 2025 under military risk insurance, according to information from the insurer.
Payments were made for 104 insured events. Of these, 97 related to motor vehicles insured against damage or destruction as a result of damage or total loss of the vehicle from missiles and drones, including damage from their debris, or debris from structures and trees caused by the fall of such debris.
In addition, seven cases involved payments under insurance contracts for buildings and structures with finishes and communications, integral property complexes, as well as equipment, office equipment, and inventory damaged as a result of rocket and/or drone attacks, for a total amount of over UAH 40 million.
ARX is part of the international insurance holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
Peru has decided to break diplomatic relations with Mexico after former Prime Minister Betsy Chavez sought refuge in the Mexican embassy to request political asylum, Reuters reports, citing Peruvian Foreign Minister Hugo de Cella.
“In response to this unfriendly act and considering the repeated instances of interference in Peru’s internal affairs by current and former presidents of that country, the Peruvian government has decided today to sever diplomatic relations with Mexico,” de Cella said.
Chávez, who served under President Pedro Castillo, faced criminal charges in connection with her alleged involvement in Castillo’s attempt to dissolve Congress in late 2022. The former prime minister had been in prison since June 2023 but was released by a judge in September while her trial was ongoing.
The Agrotrade agricultural holding has completed its winter wheat sowing campaign on 11.6 thousand hectares in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions, according to its press service on Facebook.
Agrotrade noted that compared to last year, the area under winter wheat has been reduced by 20%. This is due to a review of the crop rotation structure and optimization for more profitable crops.
“The sowing campaign was successful and organized within the planned time frame. Despite the moisture deficit in early September and excessive soil moisture in October, all areas were sown on time,” the agricultural holding noted.
According to the chief agronomist of the agricultural group, Gennady Maly, this year the agricultural holding introduced several new technological approaches. In particular, winter wheat was sown immediately after the soybean harvest, without additional tillage. In addition, wheat was sown with wide row spacing on some of the areas so that soybeans could be sown between them in the spring.
“The area under this experiment is still small, but global experience shows the high efficiency of this practice, so we decided to test it in our own conditions and analyze the results,” he said.
The Agrotrade Group of Companies is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage, and trade in agricultural products). It cultivates more than 70,000 hectares of land. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans, and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a one-time storage capacity of 570,000 tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn, sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20,000 tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of the Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region).
The founder of Agrotrade is Vsevolod Kozhemyako.
