The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) fined Pivdenny Bank (Odesa) a total of UAH 18.5 million for violations of legislation in the field of preventing and combating money laundering (AML/CFT) and currency legislation.
According to a statement on the regulator’s website, the bank must pay UAH 17.5 million in fines for improper application of a risk-based approach, improper verification of customers, shortcomings in enhanced verification of high-risk customers, and violation of the procedure for providing information in response to NBU requests.
Separately, Pivdenny Bank was fined UAH 1 million for violating currency supervision requirements, in particular for improper analysis of currency transaction documents and failure to identify currency transaction indicators.
In addition, the NBU issued two written warnings to the bank: for deficiencies in internal documents on AML/CFT and risk management, as well as for errors in statistical reporting on currency transactions.
As reported, in November 2025, the NBU applied sanctions to two banks and two non-bank financial institutions, including fines totaling UAH 20.57 million.
Ukrainian banks will pay income tax at a doubled rate of 50% in 2026.
The corresponding law (No. 14097) on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the specifics of income tax for banks in 2026 was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on Wednesday with 272 votes in favor, with a minimum of 226 votes required, according to a correspondent from the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
According to Yaroslav Zheleznyak, first deputy chairman of the relevant parliamentary finance committee, banks will pay tax at this rate on a quarterly basis next year and in the first quarter of 2027, which should bring an additional UAH 15-23 billion to the budget in 2026 and about UAH 5 billion in 2027.
This is the third tax increase for banks to 50% since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but the first two times — in 2023 and 2024 — the Rada made this decision retroactively in the fall.
At its meeting on October 30, the Financial Stability Council (FSC) noted the systemic risks that could be created by the introduction of a 50% tax rate on bank profits from 2026.
“Raising the tax rate for banks to 50% creates risks of limiting lending to the economy and weakening financial stability in wartime,” the FSC emphasized.
Council members also noted that the expected fiscal effect of raising the rate to 50% may turn out to be significantly lower than publicly communicated estimates.
Among other risks, the FRS cited possible complications in the privatization of banks with state ownership, failure by some institutions to implement capitalization programs within the specified time frame, difficulties in timely compliance with capital adequacy requirements in accordance with EU standards, the risk of violating the obligations under the Memorandum with the IMF, as well as a reduction in incentives to de-shadow the economy.
The National Bank also noted that banks and financial companies already have a higher level of income taxation compared to other sectors of the economy – 25% versus 18%.
According to the NBU, Ukrainian banks earned UAH 131.7 billion in net profit in the first 10 months of 2025, which is 4.9% more than in the same period of 2024, and paid 2.1% more income tax – UAH 34.7 billion.
The portfolio of domestic government bonds (OVDP) held by Ukrainian banks decreased by UAH 3.584 billion (0.4%) to UAH 912.852 billion, while that held by non-residents decreased by UAH 0.181 billion (1.2%) to UAH 15.446 billion.
The OVDP portfolio owned by legal entities increased by UAH 2.073 billion (1.1%) to UAH 190.889 billion, and that of individuals by UAH 0.288 billion (0.3%) to UAH 106.790 billion.
According to the NBU, the overall OVDP portfolio decreased by UAH 1.449 billion (0.1%) to UAH 1,895.060 billion from UAH 1,896.509 billion a day earlier, while the portfolio owned by the NBU and local authorities remained unchanged.
The official exchange rate on November 6 was UAH 42.0671/USD.
As part of its 19th package of sanctions, the European Union will impose a ban on transactions with five Russian credit institutions from November 12: Alfa Bank, MTS Bank, Absolut Bank, Zemsky Bank, and NKO Istina, according to an EU statement.
In addition, Belarusian Alfa Bank, Sberbank, VTB, Belgazprombank, BelVEB, as well as VTB’s subsidiary in Kazakhstan and VTB’s branch in Shanghai have been added to the EU sanctions list.
BAN, BANK, BELARUS, EUROPEAN UNION, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SANCTION, TRANSACTION
The network of bank branches in Ukraine shrank by 21 locations in the third quarter and stood at 4,913 branches at the beginning of October, according to information on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to its statistics, the reduction amounted to 98 branches over the first nine months of the year.
PrivatBank reduced the most branches in the third quarter—six—which reduced its network to 1,096, but the bank retained second place in terms of their number.
Oschadbank, despite closing five branches, remains the leader in Ukraine with 1,142 locations.
Pivdenny Bank and Radabank reduced their networks by three and two branches, respectively, in July-September, to 37 and 30 locations.
In the third quarter, Ukrgasbank (210 branches), MTB Bank (43), BIZbank (29), Industrialbank (24), MetaBank (21), RVS Bank (13), First Investment Bank (10), and Motor Bank (7) closed one branch each.
Among the banks that expanded their networks in the third quarter, PUMB, Akordbank, TAScombank, Bank Lviv, and Bank Ukrainian Capital opened one branch each—their networks grew to 220, 163, 92, 21, and 12 branches, respectively.
According to the National Bank, as of early October this year, the largest branch networks in Ukraine are traditionally held by the largest state-owned banks—Oschadbank with 1,142 branches and PrivatBank with 1,096. Raiffeisen Bank (321), PUMB (220), and Ukrsibbank (218) followed them at a considerable distance.
The second five in terms of network size were formed by the state-owned Ukrgasbank (210), A-Bank (198), Akordbank (163), the state-owned Sens Bank (137), and Credit Agricole Bank (125).
As of early October, seven banks with state ownership held a network of 2,639 branches, accounting for 53.7% of the total number of branches at the end of the third quarter.
Ukrainian banks earned UAH 95.50 billion in net profit in January-July 2025, which is 1.2% less than in the same period of 2024, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to its data, net interest income increased by 14.3% to UAH 151.74 billion, and net commission income increased by 12% to UAH 35.41 billion.
At the same time, the result from the revaluation of government bonds and currency purchase and sale transactions decreased by 28.1% to UAH 17.24 billion, while total administrative expenses increased by 20.8% to UAH 72.24 billion, and other operating expenses by 15.5% to UAH 11.92 billion.
In addition, while banks increased their provisions by only UAH 0.38 billion in the first seven months of last year, they increased them by UAH 4.93 billion in the first seven months of this year.
In July, the net profit of Ukrainian banks amounted to UAH 14.42 billion, which is 1.9% worse than in July 2024. Although net interest income grew by 14.9% to UAH 22.84 billion and net commission income by 18.3% to UAH 5.30 billion, the result from the revaluation of domestic government bonds and foreign currency purchase and sale transactions fell threefold to UAH 1.77 billion.
Therefore, even the release of reserves in July in the amount of UAH 0.24 billion could not prevent a decrease in net profit compared to July last year.
In the overall structure of banks’ income and expenses for the first seven months of this year, the share of interest income increased to 70.8% from 68.7% last year, while the share of interest expenses decreased to 33.6% from 34.5%.
The share of commission income also increased in January-July this year to 21.3% from 21.0% in January-July last year, with the share of commission expenses decreasing to 14.5% from 15%.
At the same time, the share of total administrative expenses increased to 31.2% from 29.9%.
As reported, solvent banks in Ukraine received UAH 103.69 billion in net profit in 2024, which is 24.6% more than in 2023.
Last year, as in 2023, the corporate income tax rate for banks was increased retroactively to 50% for the entire year in the fall, while this year it is 25%.
