The shareholders of Credit Agricole Bank Ukraine decided to keep all profits generated in Ukraine inside the country, thus increasing the Tier 1 capital, said Vitaliy Kucher, Member of the Management Board and CFO of the bank.
“We have made a political decision, and all the income that the bank earns in Ukraine remains in Ukraine. That is, we do not postpone the distribution of dividends, we distribute them, we increase the Tier 1 capital,” he said at the Association of Ukrainian Banks conference ‘Financial Sector of Ukraine 2024: Results, Challenges, Forecasts’ in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“That is, the money stays here forever to support the economy, to build a sufficient buffer for the development of lending,” Kucher added.
According to him, in case of building an acceptable investment climate and predictable environment, conducting the right regulatory and state policy, “money will flow here (to Ukraine – IF-U).”
The CFO also noted that the group’s central management is actively involved in the subsidiary’s operations, in particular, unlike a number of other foreign banks, he personally visits Ukraine during a full-scale war.
Credit Agricole Bank (formerly Index Bank) was founded in 1993. Its sole shareholder is Credit Agricole S.A. (France). According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, Credit Agricole Bank ranked 10th in terms of total assets (UAH 121.08 billion) among 62 banks operating in the country. The net profit of the financial institution for the first nine months of 2024 amounted to UAH 5.12 billion, and its equity as of October 1 amounted to UAH 14.15 billion.