The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a new GROW project to support Ukrainian credit unions, according to the USAID website.
“Through a partnership with the World Council of Credit Unions, USAID will expand support for Ukrainian credit unions, enabling them to provide more loans to businesses and individual entrepreneurs,” the report said.
The initiative begins this month and will last for the next four years. The initial investment of resources will be $5 million.
The GROW project will work closely with credit unions in Ukraine to create products and partnerships that will maximize credit union outreach to Ukrainians and positively impact local communities and local economies. The project will also increase access to finance for Ukrainians seeking to start their own businesses and businesses wishing to expand their operations, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises, cooperatives and agro-producers in rural areas of the country.
In addition, the project will support Ukraine’s long-term priorities for further integration and EU accession, in particular harmonization of the regulatory framework for credit unions with relevant EU requirements.
The National Bank of Ukraine has cancelled licenses for four financial companies and one credit union, and excluded two credit unions from the State Register of Financial Institutions, according to the regulator’s website.
According to the NBU, the decisions of December 12, all licenses of Holastis Financial Company LLC, Maximum Financial Company LLC and Credit Finance Ukraine Financial Company LLC have been annulled.
As reported, on October 19, 2022 the mentioned institutions have been applied sanctions in the form of temporary suspension of licenses to provide financial services due to non-provision of information and documents about the ownership structure requested by the National Bank of Ukraine. As of the moment of taking decision on cancellation of licenses the violations have not been eliminated.
Besides, LLC “FC “Plaza Inves” has its license for provision of financial leasing services revoked due to failure to provide any financial service under this license during 12 months since the day of its issuance.
CC “Ukrainian Oshchad Center” is also excluded from the State Register of financial institutions due to the cancellation of all previous licenses and CC “Elliada” on the basis of its own application, guided by the special procedure during martial law.
The Verkhovna Rada did not support bill No. 5125 on credit unions at a meeting on July 18 and sent it for a second second reading, People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said.
“They didn’t generally support (219) No. 5125 the new legislation on credit unions. They sent it to a second second (vote),” he wrote on the Telegram channel on Monday.
According to the report, 234 parliamentarians voted for such a decision, with the required 226 votes.
Assets of credit unions in January-March 2021 grew by 1%, to UAH 2.355 billion, according to a review of the non-banking financial sector published on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Friday.
According to the review, the number of registered credit unions at the end of the first quarter of 2021 was 316, which is 1.9% less than at the end of 2020, and 5.8% less than at the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Liabilities of credit unions since the beginning of this year have grown by 0.2%, to UAH 1.29 billion, including the amount of liabilities, on which interest is accrued, by 0.8%, to UAH 1.19 billion.
Credit unions’ revenues in January-March remained at the level of the first quarter of last year and amounted to UAH 220 million, while expenses decreased 22.3%, to UAH 209 million.
Revenue of credit unions was linked to a decrease in payments to loan loss reserves, as well as due to a decrease in the ratio of operating expenses to operating income.
Equity capital of credit unions for the first quarter of 2021 grew by 52.6%, to UAH 1 billion.
As the NBU said, the unsatisfactory financial performance of credit unions leads to a significant number of violators of the requirements. In particular, in January-March, nine credit unions violated capital adequacy requirements.
The number of credit unions in the public register of financial institutions of Ukraine decreased by 16.5%, or 74 institutions, in Q1 2018 year-over-year, to 375, according to the website of the National Commission for State Regulation of Financial Services Markets. According to the regulator, the largest number of credit unions was registered in Kyiv city and region (40, or 10.7% of the total number), Luhansk region (33, or 8.8%), Donetsk region (29, or 7.7%), and Kharkiv region (23, or 6.1%).
According to the regulator, in Q1 2018, the number of participants in credit unions shrank by 11.5%, to 566,200, the number of participants with current loan agreements by 10.9%, to 131,800, while the number of members with contributions on deposit accounts by 6.5%, to 21,600.
The leaders in terms of the number of participants in credit unions are Lviv region (76,000), Kyiv city and region (56,400), Ivano-Frankivsk region (60,200) and Zakarpattia region (45,800). At the same time, as before, most credit unions (155, or 55.9%) have a small number of participants – up to 1,000, and more than a third of credit unions (111, or 40.7%) have 1,000 to 10,000 participants.
The total volume of loans granted to members of credit unions as of December 31, 2018 reached UAH 2.223 billion (7% up), whereas contributions of members of credit unions on deposit accounts amounted to UAH 984 million (up 14.7%).
The total amount of debt on loans is UAH 369.2 million (1.6% down).
The number of credit unions in the state register of financial institutions of Ukraine decreased by 18.2%, or 84 institutions, in 2017 year-over-year, to 378, according to the website of the National Commission for State Regulation of Financial Services Markets. According to the regulator, the largest number of credit unions was registered in Kyiv and the Kyiv region (39, or 10.3% of the total number), Luhansk region (33, or 9%), Donetsk region (29, or 7.7%), and Kharkiv region (24, or 6.3%).
According to the regulator, last year, the number of participants in credit unions shrank by 12.3%, to 564,100, the number of participants with current loan agreements by 9.6%, to 134,300, while the number of members with contributions on deposit accounts by 47.2%, to 21,700.
The leaders in terms of the number of participants in credit unions are Lviv region (75,900), Kyiv and the Kyiv region (52,800), Ivano-Frankivsk region (54,700) and Zakarpattia region (46,100). At the same time, as before, most credit unions (155, or 55.8%) are united by a small number of participants – up to 1,000, and more than a third of credit unions (111, or 39.9%) are united by 1,000 to 10,000 participants.
The total volume of loans granted to members of credit unions as of December 31, 2017 reached UAH 1.902 billion (up 5.7%), whereas contributions of members of credit unions on deposit accounts amounted to UAH 937 million (up 12.6%). The total amount of debt on loans is UAH 345.8 million (down 6.2%).
