JSC OTP BANK applies various mechanisms to make credit products available and interesting for as many business clients as possible. This was stated by Alla Biniashvili, Member of the Management Board of the Bank, in her speech at the international industry conference Grain Ukraine.
She reminded that since the beginning of the full-scale war, the corporate portfolio of Ukrainian banks has decreased by 20%, so now banking institutions are using various methods to resume lending to the economy.
According to Alla Biniashvili, an important advantage of OTP Bank is its systematic cooperation with international organizations that offer risk-sharing or provide grant programs for business. In particular, with the EBRD, with which the Bank has entered into an unfunded agreement on portfolio risk sharing totaling EUR 120 million, and with the USAID Project “Investments for Business Resilience”, which allowed financing Ukrainian enterprises for more than UAH 500 million at a preferential rate of 7%.
“We carefully study risks as a responsible bank, but at the same time, we understand the current situation and see the conditions in which business operates. And thanks to risk-sharing with the EBRD, we can finance different clients. As part of its cooperation with the USAID Business Resilience Investment Project, the Bank provides loans at preferential rates. So we have opportunities, and this is our distinctive advantage,” emphasized Alla Biniashvili.
She noted that OTP BANK has been actively applying positive international experience throughout its activities, and thanks to cooperation with the International Financial Corporation (IFC), in 2017 created a unique scoring project called Agro Factory. “Back then, we studied the pains and fears of small companies, in particular, they wanted to receive decisions quickly, submit a minimum package of documents, etc. We met all their requirements within Agro Fabrika. We make decisions within a business day and disburse funds within a week at the most, because after all, providing financing is a dance for two, and there is a need to obtain certain documents. For agricultural producers, we offer loans of up to UAH 5 million without any collateral at all, and up to UAH 20 million secured by financial agricultural receipts,” said the member of the Bank’s Management Board.
She emphasized that OTP BANK successfully cooperates with well-known international and Ukrainian partner companies, including manufacturers of seeds, plant protection products, fertilizers, etc. within the Agro Factory project. “If a bank customer buys goods from them, they compensate us for the difference in interest rate, so we can provide a very interesting loan offer at 0.1%, which is difficult to find on the market in the usual way. Agrarian business is in the center of our attention, and 50% of loans in the total loan portfolio of OTP Bank are financing of the agricultural industry,” she said.
The nationalized Sens Bank (Kyiv, formerly Alfa-Bank) plans to join government loan programs, Rostislav Dyuk, deputy chairman of the financial institution’s supervisory board, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“Last year, the bank reduced its assets to comply with certain NBU restrictions. But we have a strong base of loyal customers and expect them to return. Plus, now, as a state-owned bank, Sens Bank will be able to provide its customers with access to government lending programs,” Dyuk said.
Olena Zubchenko, acting chairman of the board, added that the bank plans to become a partner of the 5-7-9 program.
“We would like to join the eHouse program as well. But as for the mortgage program, we see the bank’s team that used to do something else. We will analyze how to launch it (the housing lending program), the main thing is that we managed to retain specialists,” the bank’s CEO said.
Zubchenko also sees e-commerce, gaming and other digital areas of the economy as promising areas of development.
“We will evaluate how and on what terms we will join these areas of financial sector development. Since we represent the interests of both retail and corporate business, this will remain the focus of our development,” she said.
As reported, the Chairman of the Board of Sense Bank (Kyiv, formerly Alfa-Bank) Dmitry Kuzmin, who was appointed to this position three weeks ago during the nationalization of the bank, resigned by mutual consent for personal reasons. On August 14, the Supervisory Board accepted his resignation and appointed Kuzmin’s deputy, Olena Zubchenko, who worked at the Ministry of Finance before the bank’s nationalization, as acting chairman of the board.
During a press conference, Shevki Adzhuner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Sens Bank, clarified that Zubchenko “will act as the head of the bank for no more than six months.” According to him, the head of the bank will be elected in a competition, as well as several other positions of the bank’s management board, including CFO and COO.
Sens Bank ranks 11th among 65 operating banks in Ukraine in terms of assets (about 3.4% of the banking system’s total assets of UAH 96.637 billion). It was nationalized in the twentieth of July under a specially adopted law as a systemically important bank with majority shareholders from Alfa Group, which was subject to sanctions.
In the second quarter of 2023, the bank opened two new branches, expanding its network to 140 units across the country.
