The Financial Stress Index (FSI) in April fell and reached 0.2 points by the end of the month after a bounce to 0.3 in March, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said in a weekly bank survey posted on its website on Wednesday.
According to the document, corporate and banking sub-indices are declining, and the latter, in particular, due to a drop in the yield of securities.
The National Bank said that at the end of April the outflow of hryvnia-pegged time deposits and foreign currency funds of the population stopped. The regulator added that the hryvnia funds of Ukrainians have been at maximum levels for the second week since the beginning of March, and only foreign currency time deposits of the population are still declining.
According to the report based on the data from 22 largest banks, from April 27 through April 30, the hryvnia funds of individuals maintained stable growth of 0.3%, and that of business entities of 0.9%. Foreign currency funds of individuals for the same period increased by 0.2%, and business entities’ decreased by 0.1%, compared with the previous week.
The regulator said that the portfolio of foreign currency loans issued to small and medium-sized enterprises in April markedly worsened, in particular, from the beginning of April, the share of hryvnia loans overdue over a week in the portfolios of banks increased from 25.8% to 30.9%, and foreign currency loans – from 30.7% up to 38.3%.
The National Bank also said that at the beginning of May the share of working bank branches increased from 75.5% to 77.3%, and that of ATMs – from 95.8% to 96.3%.
