The nationalization of Sense Bank (formerly Alfa Bank), launched on Thursday by the National Bank of Ukraine, will increase the share of state-owned banks in the total assets of the country’s banking system by 3.3 percentage points (p.p.) to about 56%, NBU head Andriy Pyshnyy said.
“This is not a critical indicator,” he said at a briefing on Thursday.
According to Pyshnyy, nationalization of Sense Bank will not be a problem in relations with the International Monetary Fund, which opposes increasing the share of state banks in the market, as the National Bank took such a step in order to ensure financial stability.
The head of the National Bank also said that the question about the possible future sale of Sense Bank should be asked to its future owner – the state represented by the Ministry of Finance.
“Of course, they will have to decide on its further strategy, given that Ukraine has committed to reducing the state’s share in the banking system. We believe that this issue will be relevant, as, in fact, in relation to any other state-owned bank”, – said Pyshnyy.
Last week, Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Sobolev said it was necessary to create a mechanism that would allow nationalized banks to quickly return to the private market in shares or as a whole.
Currently, four state-owned banks – Privat, Oschad, Ukrexim and Ukrgas – are among the top five largest banks in the market in terms of total assets. Their combined market share by this indicator amounted to 52.5% at the beginning of June, and in absolute terms – UAH 1.501 trillion.
In terms of total assets at the beginning of June – UAH 96.64 bln, or 3.4% of the total volume – Sense Bank ranked 11th in the market among 65 operating banks.
