The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has authorized Credit Agricole Bank to acquire control over Bank “Lviv.”
The committee adopted the decision at a meeting on Thursday following its review of the bank’s application dated May 13, 2026.
The AMCU also authorized Credit Agricole Bank and six shareholders of Bank Lviv—who collectively own 99.972126% of its shares—to fulfill the non-solicitation, non-hiring, and non-competition provisions set forth in the purchase and sale agreement.
As previously reported, in March 2026, Credit Agricole Bank signed an agreement to acquire up to 100% of the share capital of Bank Lviv. The transaction amount was not disclosed. Its completion also depends on obtaining approval from the National Bank of Ukraine.
Credit Agricole Bank plans to leverage Bank Lviv’s regional expertise to develop the small and medium-sized business segment, with a focus on the agricultural sector throughout Ukraine.
Combining their assets would enable Credit Agricole to enter the top ten banks in Ukraine, displacing OTP Bank from that ranking.
Credit Agricole Bank was founded in 1993. Its sole shareholder is Credit Agricole S.A. (France).
According to the National Bank, as of May 1, 2026, the bank ranked 11th (UAH 135.98 billion) in terms of total assets among Ukraine’s 58 solvent banks.
As of January 1 of this year, according to information on the National Bank’s website, the largest shareholder of Bank Lviv was responsAbility Participations—41.151580%—in which, notably, KfW Bankengruppe (Germany) holds 19.23%, Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft—14.4%, PKE-CPE Vorsorgestiftung Energie – 14.81%, Pensionskasse der F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG – 10.31%, Previs Vorsorge – 7.20%, and Providentia AG – 5.76% (all five based in Switzerland).
In addition, through a series of entities, Icelandic citizen Margheir Petursson was a major shareholder—holding 27.937421%—as was the Dutch state investment fund DGGF, which invested EUR 4.5 million in the bank’s capital in the summer of 2024—holding 20.492129%, and another 10.390996% was held by NEFCO (Nordic Environment Finance Corporation).
As of May 1, 2026, Bank Lviv ranked 24th in terms of total assets—18.89 billion UAH.
The TAS Group plans to invest $250–300 million in the authorized capital of banks, insurance companies, and other financial sector assets, according to the group’s founder and chairman, Serhiy Tihipko.
According to him, the group is the largest private Ukrainian owner in the financial sector and intends to continue strengthening its position.
“Today, we are the largest among private Ukrainian owners in the financial sector. And we are gaining momentum here. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we will have to invest in authorized capital. I think we’ll invest somewhere between $250–300 million just to increase authorized capital,” said Tigipko at the Concorde Capital investment conference in Kyiv.
The group also continues to consider deals to acquire financial assets. Tigipko reported that TAS was interested in acquiring the insurance company MetLife, but was beaten to it by Poland’s PZU.
“That’s okay, we’ll wait. I told Richard Branson: deals are like a bus—one leaves, another comes. We’ll wait for the next one,” he noted.
The financial division of the TAS Group includes, among others, TAScombank, Universal Bank (which operates the mono platform), and Idea Bank. For the group, further capital increases at its banks and insurance companies mean strengthening its market presence, where—following the war and sector consolidation—the importance of large private players may grow.
According to Fixygen, JSC “Ukrainian Capital Bank” will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders on April 29, 2026, via remote participation. Shareholders will review the bank’s financial statements, financial results, and development strategy.
The bank operates in the corporate segment and serves business clients. According to Opendatabot, a controlling stake (over 75%) is held by Ukrainian businessman Andriy Onystrat through affiliated entities. The bank is actively engaged in the settlement and cash management segment and business financing.
In 2025, Ukrainian banks issued 8,282 thousand mortgage loans worth UAH 15.69 billion, which is 4.3% more than in 2024, when 8,807 thousand loans worth UAH 15.05 billion were issued, while the number of loans issued decreased by 6.0%, according to the results of a survey by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“The quality of the mortgage portfolio remains high: the share of non-performing loans is only 13%,” the regulator commented on the results.
According to the National Bank, in December 2025, 952 mortgage loans were issued in Ukraine for UAH 1.96 billion, which is 28.3% more than in November, when 743 loans were issued for UAH 1.52 billion.
As specified by the NBU, out of 38 banks surveyed, 14 financial institutions issued mortgage loans in December last year. Most of the deals were concluded in the primary housing market: 539 in December for UAH 1.13 billion, compared to 434 in November for UAH 0.91 billion.
On the secondary housing market, 413 deals were concluded for UAH 0.83 billion, compared to 309 in November for UAH 0.61 billion.
The weighted average effective rate in the primary housing market in December 2025 decreased to 8.11% per annum (8.14% in November), and in the secondary market to 8.66% (9.42%).
Survey data show that in December 2025, most loans were issued in Kyiv and the Kyiv region – 538 for UAH 1.18 billion (60.1% of the total volume), followed by Lviv region – 47 loans worth UAH 103 million, Odesa region – 40 loans worth UAH 78 million, and Volyn region – 38 loans worth UAH 69 million.
As reported, partner banks of the state affordable mortgage program “єОселя” issued a total of 7,769 loans worth almost UAH 15 billion in 2025, including 4,881 loans for “first sale” housing, including 1,499 apartments in buildings under construction.
Standard Chartered analysts estimate that dollar-pegged stablecoins could take around $500 billion in deposits from US banks by the end of 2028, intensifying competition for funding between traditional banks and crypto infrastructure.
Regional credit institutions are considered the most vulnerable in the banking sector, as their revenues are more closely linked to net interest margins (the difference between the return on assets and the cost of deposits), so the outflow of funding has a greater impact on profitability.
The risk mechanism for banks is that the “safe layer” of money is partially transferred from deposits to tokens: payment functions and part of the transaction activity can be transferred to stablecoins, and issuers’ reserves are more often placed not in the banking system, but in US Treasury securities. In particular, according to Standard Chartered’s estimates, the largest issuers, Tether and Circle, hold the bulk of their reserves in US Treasuries, meaning that there is little “redeposit” into banks.
The accelerating factor is regulation. Reuters notes that the federal law on stablecoins passed in the US is expected to encourage their wider use; the document prohibits issuers from paying interest on stablecoins, but banks believe that there is still a “loophole” for paying returns through third parties (e.g., crypto exchanges), which intensifies competition for deposits.
If Standard Chartered’s assessment scenario is confirmed, part of the funding will shift from the banking system to the US government debt market, as the growth of stablecoins increases demand for short-term treasury bills, which are used to secure reserves.
BANK, DEPOSIT, stablecoins, US
The National Bank of Ukraine has fined Clearing House Bank UAH 200,000 for violating financial monitoring legislation.
In particular, the bank failed to comply with the prohibition on notifying customers of decisions made by the specially authorized body for financial transactions, the NBU said.
