According to preliminary data, solvent banks of Ukraine received UAH 103.69 billion in net profit last year, which is 24.6% more than in 2023, a result driven mainly by the growth of high-quality loans and investments in government bonds, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on its website on Wednesday evening.
“Loan yields stabilized in 2024, but their volumes continued to grow. Over the year, the net hryvnia loan portfolio of businesses grew by 21%, and that of households by almost 40%. An additional factor in maintaining the banks’ profitability in 2024 is the growth of investments in government bonds by 35% over the year,” the central bank said.
Thus, according to NBU statistics, the hryvnia loan portfolio of businesses increased to UAH 385.39 billion, and that of households to UAH 221.36 billion. At the same time, investments in domestic debt securities increased to UAH 884.09 billion (in all currencies).
“At the same time, the cost of funding for banks slightly decreased due to lower market deposit rates in the first half of 2024, so banks maintained a fairly high net interest margin,” the regulator emphasized.
Net fee and commission income of the banking system increased by 11.3% over the year. The NBU notes that in December 2024, for the first time since the full-scale war, its monthly volume reached the pre-war level. According to statistics, as of the beginning of 2025, the system’s net fee and commission income reached UAH 56.97 billion.
The high quality of the loan portfolio resulted in a low level of allocations to credit risk provisions. Thus, the volume of deductions almost halved last year to UAH 9.55 billion.
It is noted that despite the further increase in administrative expenses of banks, their operational efficiency remains high.
“At the end of 2024, only nine small banks out of 61 solvent banks were unprofitable with a total loss of UAH 418 million. These are mostly institutions with inefficient business models and a number of long-standing problems,” the NBU said.
Banks paid UAH 83.72 billion in income tax, up from UAH 76.64 billion in 2023. However, it is said that the final amount of taxes paid will be clear only after the annual audit of banks’ accounts.
“Preliminary estimates suggest that the return on equity in the sector will be around 30% in 2024. In general, the banking system remains profitable and sufficiently capitalized, and retains the ability to lend to the economy,” the regulator states.
At the same time, the agency points out that the second consecutive retrospective taxation of banks may affect the condition of some financial institutions. According to the central bank, some of them risk violating capital adequacy requirements after the final calculation and reporting of income tax.
“Maintaining profitability and implementing capitalization programs will allow financial institutions to restore capital. However, the uncertainty of tax policy may continue to deter banks from more active expansion of operations,” the NBU summarized.
In June-October 2024, Ukrainian banks financed 310 MW of generation facilities in 21 regions of the country, the Ministry of Energy reported, citing the results of a survey of banks conducted by the National Bank of Ukraine.
“The total amount of loans actually issued for the energy needs of legal entities is UAH 3.4 billion,” the statement said.
In addition, banks are reportedly lending to households. In particular, in October, 1 thousand loans totaling UAH 176 million were granted to individuals. The total gross portfolio of loans related to the energy needs of individuals increased to UAH 366 million.
According to the NBU, from June to October 2024, banks received a total of 2,927 thousand applications from businesses for loans to install energy equipment to strengthen energy independence, totaling UAH 66.2 billion. Of these, applications for UAH 11.7 billion were approved.
The net profit of solvent banks in Ukraine in January-August 2024 reached UAH 106.08 billion, which is 11.6% more than in the same period in 2023, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to the NBU, in August this year, banks’ net profit decreased to UAH 12.47 billion from UAH 14.58 billion a month earlier, up 4.8% compared to August 2023.
According to the National Bank, net interest income in January-August this year increased by 18.5% to UAH 152.74 billion, while net commission income increased by 8.2% to UAH 36.11 billion.
The share of interest income in the total structure of banks for 8 months of this year increased to 68.6% from 67.5% for 8 months of last year, while the share of commission decreased to 21.0% 21.9%.
At the same time, in August of this year, net interest income increased by 11.6% to UAH 19.98 billion compared to August of last year, while net fee and commission income increased by 14.3% to UAH 4.48 billion.
According to the NBU, in August, banks added additional reserves in the amount of UAH 0.78 billion compared to UAH 0.75 billion in July and UAH 1.68 billion in June, but in general, since the beginning of the year, this figure amounted to only UAH 1.15 billion compared to UAH 6.52 billion for 8 months of last year, including UAH 1.62 billion in August-2023.
It is noted that banks paid UAH 30.71 billion in income tax in January-August this year, compared to UAH 17 billion last year.
As reported, last fall, the Verkhovna Rada retroactively increased the bank profit tax for 2023 from 18% to 50%, setting it at 25% for the following years. However, this year, in September, the Parliament again approved in the first reading a retroactive increase in the bank profit tax to 50% in 2024.
However, the National Bank opposes this and said it would try to persuade parliamentarians.
Bank Clearing House has bought back 5.2727% of shares from Ivan Fursin, as a result of which its share has decreased from 6.8773% to 1.6046%, according to the information in the disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC).
It is specified that the shares were bought back on May 17 this year.
As reported, Clearing House Bank planned to buy back 2,540 ordinary registered shares, or 5.2727% of the authorized capital.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of January 1, 2024, its shareholders were: Yulia Lyovochkina – 63.4068%, Ivan Fursin – 16.7791% (6.8773% direct participation and 9.9018% indirectly through Vistaki Ventures Limited), Ihor Voronin – 9.7855%, Fabian Bonneleim – 6.4642%, Ng Ching Yu – 2.5408%, Yuriy Boyko – 1.0172% and Oleksandr Danchenko – 0.0005%.
As of April 1, 2024, in terms of total assets, Clearing House Bank ranked 34th (UAH 5.48 billion) among 63 banks operating in the country. Last year, the bank increased its net profit to UAH 143.56 million from UAH 83.58 million in 2022, and its assets increased to UAH 5.5 billion from UAH 5.2 billion, according to the annual report.
Bank Clearing House may buy back 2,540 ordinary registered shares, or 5.2727% of the authorized capital, according to information in the disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC).
According to the announcement, the relevant issue will be considered at the general meeting of shareholders on April 29 this year.
The agenda stipulates that the shares are to be repurchased at the market value determined by the appraiser Garant-Expertise LLC.
According to the bank, as of January 1 this year, its shareholders were: Yulia Lyovochkina – 63.4068%, Ivan Fursin – 16.7791%, Ihor Voronin – 9.7855%, Fabian Bonneleim – 6.4642%, Ng Ching Yu – 2.5408%, Yuriy Boyko – 1.0172% and Oleksandr Danchenko – 0.0005%.
As of February 1, 2024, in terms of total assets, Clearing House Bank ranked 34th (UAH 5.74 billion) among 63 banks operating in the country. Its authorized capital amounted to UAH 510.4 million, and its equity capital was UAH 1 billion 71.4 million.
Last year, the bank increased its net profit to UAH 143.56 million from UAH 83.58 million in 2022, and its assets grew to UAH 6.09 billion from UAH 5.85 billion.
Residents’ deposits in Ukrainian banks in January this year decreased by 2.1%, or UAH 49.2 billion, to UAH 2 trillion 345.9 billion, a decline in deposits recorded for the first time since August 2022, according to statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the statistics, household deposits fell by 2.5%, or UAH 27.4 billion, to UAH 1 trillion 50.9 billion in January. The previous decline was recorded in May and January last year, but then it amounted to less than UAH 1 billion and less than UAH 4 billion, respectively.
The NBU clarified that both hryvnia deposits decreased by 2.6%, or UAH 18.8 billion, to UAH 692.2 billion, and foreign currency deposits decreased by 2.1% in dollar terms, or $0.20 billion, to $9.47 billion.
In the first month of the new year, business deposits decreased by 1.7 percentage points, or UAH 21.8 billion, to UAH 1 trillion 259.5 billion. This was due to a 3.5% or UAH 32.5 billion drop in hryvnia deposits to UAH 884.85 billion. At the same time, foreign currency deposits in dollar terms increased by 3.2%, or $0.31 billion, to $9.89 billion.
The average rate of new hryvnia deposits for households remained unchanged at 11.7% in January, while for the corporate sector, after a pause in December, it dropped by 0.3 percentage points (pp) to 9.9%, returning to the level of November 2022.
As for foreign currency deposits, their yield for individuals remained at around 1.0% per annum for the fourth month in a row, while for legal entities it gained 0.2 pp, returning to the level of August last year – 0.7% per annum.
In January, the six-month-long upward trend in the loan portfolio was also interrupted: it decreased by 0.5%, or UAH 4.76 billion.
According to the regulator, the reason for this was a decrease in the loan portfolio of legal entities by 1.2%, or UAH 8.88 billion, to UAH 748.10 billion. The largest outflow of loans was recorded in foreign currency: the portfolio decreased by 2% in dollar terms, or $0.12 billion, to UAH 6.23 billion, while in national currency, the portfolio decreased by 0.7%, or UAH 3.51 billion, to UAH 512.35 billion.
At the same time, the loan portfolio of individuals grew by 2.1%, or UAH 4.76 billion, to UAH 227.31 billion due to an increase in hryvnia loans by 2.3%, or UAH 4.90 billion, to UAH 215.49 billion, while the foreign currency portfolio again decreased by 0.9% to the equivalent of $312 million.
According to the National Bank, interest rates on hryvnia loans to businesses and individuals increased by 0.6 percentage points to 18.1% and 0.9 percentage points to 34.6% per annum, respectively. At the same time, interest rates on foreign currency loans for legal entities increased by 0.3 percentage points to 6.7%, and for individuals, on the contrary, fell by 1.4 percentage points to 5% per annum.
According to the central bank, interbank and overnight lending rates decreased by 0.4 percentage points in January, to 14.6% and 14.5% per annum, respectively.
As reported, on December 15, the NBU cut the discount rate and the overnight DS rate from 16% to 15% per annum, the three-month DS rate from 20% to 19%, and the refinancing rate from 22% to 21%, and kept the rates at this level by a decision dated January 25.
Ukraine’s annualized inflation rate fell to 4.7% in January this year from 5.1% in December and November.
