The 2.9% decline in hryvnia deposits in January after a 4.6% increase in December was seasonal and not related to the discussion of the draft law on mobilization, as evidenced by the 2.3% increase in hryvnia deposits in February, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andriy Pyshny said.
“From year to year, customer account receipts increase at the end of the year and decrease at the beginning. This is a logical trend that was also present in peacetime. Businesses and the government try to complete all payments, including salaries, by the end of the year, and at the beginning of the next year, people spend or invest these funds,” Pyshnyi explained the seasonality effect.
According to him, the National Bank did not see any noticeable impact on the dynamics of deposits from the draft law on mobilization and “fake news” about the alleged introduction of taxation on all card transactions, which was refuted by the Ministry of Finance.
“Moreover, in the first weeks of its (the draft law on mobilization) discussion, the balances continued to increase. In addition, the relevant parliamentary committee has clearly stated that it will not support the provision on blocking accounts. This is possible, as it is now, only in court,” he emphasized.
Pyshnyi also clarified that the central bank did not make “any breakthrough innovations” regarding the disclosure of banking secrecy in February.
“We only clarified the terminology in accordance with the changes in the legislation on access to information, which the authorized state bodies had had before these changes in accordance with the established procedure. The NBU will continue to support initiatives aimed at combating the shadow sector, while strictly upholding the protection of the confidentiality of banking operations in accordance with international standards. we have only clarified the terminology,” the NBU governor said.
The NBU on its Facebook page followed the governor and reminded that in 2023, the amount of hryvnia funds held by households in banks increased by UAH 121 billion, or 20.5%, and reached a historic high of UAH 711 billion, and as of early March, households kept about UAH 707 billion in hryvnia accounts in banks.
“These indicators demonstrate confidence in banks and the national currency, and the share of time deposits of individuals in hryvnia increased by 4.2 percentage points over the year. Despite the widespread war, the level of dollarization of household deposits decreased by more than 2 percentage points to about 34%,” the regulator said.
The reference exchange rate of the hryvnia to the US dollar on the interbank foreign exchange market as of 12:00 a.m. on March 7, 2024.
Indicator 06.03.2024 07.03.2024 07.03.2024 Change, %.
Reference hryvnia to US dollar (UAH/$) 38.3099 38.1029 -0.54
The leaders of the Ukrainian insurance market in terms of collected net insurance premiums in January-September 2023 were: ARKS Insurance Company (UAH 2.378 billion), TAS Insurance Group (UAH 2.601 billion) and Unica Insurance Company (UAH 1.984 billion) (all based in Kyiv).
No. Name of IC Net premiums Growth rate Written premiums Growth rate Assets Reserves
1 ARX 2378 +6.8% 2760 +21.5% 5455 2838
2 TAS 2601 +54.7% 2542 +47.7% 3696 2486
3 UNIQ 1984 +9.4% 2381 +23.8% 4557 2114
4 VUSO 1693 +86.2% 2005 +78% 1726 1087
5 USG 1632 +17.2% 2243 -1.2% 3767 2312
6 INGO 1466 +34.6% 1993 +64.9% 3527 1889
7 Arsenal Insurance 1323 +5.3% 1599 +42.3 2383 1602
8 Universalna 1212 +48.3% 1463 +54.7% 2062 1121
9 PZU Ukraine 1109 +33.1% 1314 +42% 2065 1394
10 Oranta 927.8 +16.2% 1100 +29.6 1535 980.3
11 Guardian 844.5 +57.2% 1010 +60.5% 996.3 699.3
12 Knyazha VIG 825.5 +40.7% 1464 +68.9% 1758 1382
13 Premier Garant Profi 620.4 +26.9 617.5 +25.6% 180.2 19.7
14 Persha 487.4 +59.3% 599.4 +47.7% 926.9 639.9
15 Express Insurance 468.5 +12.5% 511.1 +68.5% 715 360.1
16 Colonnade Ukraine 355.1 +39% 450.2 65.4% 863 337.7
17 Euroins Ukraine 321.3 +9.3% 408 +22.1 1059 647.5
18 Alfa Garant 298.3 +24.2% 330.9 +37.6% 348.3 294
19 Oberig 293 +47.8% 275.1 +30.7% 278.3 186.8
20 UPSC 282.4 -63.9% 359.7 +0.2% 690.1 267
In the third quarter of 2023, state-owned PrivatBank once again topped the list of banks with the highest net profit with UAH 13 billion 623.5 million, followed by two other state-owned banks: Oschadbank with UAH 7 billion 338.2 million and the nationalized Sens-Bank with UAH 3 billion 440.5 million.
According to the data published by the National Bank of Ukraine on its website, the top five banks with the highest net profit in the third quarter also include two banks with foreign capital: Raiffeisen Bank – UAH 3 billion 17.1 million and Ukrsibbank – UAH 2 billion 98.9 million.
The second five banks were state-owned: the private Ukrainian FUIB – UAH 2 billion 4.4 million, the foreign subsidiary of OTP Bank – UAH 1 billion 893.4 million, the state-owned Ukreximbank – UAH 1 billion 619.2 million, and two other banks with foreign capital: Citibank – UAH 1 billion 469.7 million and Credit Agricole Bank – UAH 1 billion 299.3 million.
Universal Bank (mono) made almost the same net profit in July-September of this year – UAH 1 billion 294.4 million, while Kredobank, which follows, made a much smaller profit of UAH 594.6 million.
Two other banks made profits of over UAH 300 million in the third quarter: A-Bank – UAH 355.2 million and Ukrgasbank – UAH 325.0 million.
Of these 14 banks, only four have completed their reserves: Sense – UAH 548.0 million, while City, Raif and Credit Agricole – from UAH 30 million to UAH 20 million, while FUIB disbanded them by UAH 1 billion 413.4 million, Mono – UAH 1 billion 136.6 million, OTP, A-Bank and Ukrgas – from UAH 555 million to UAH 510 million.
The list of 7 unprofitable banks in the third quarter was headed by First Investment Bank of the sanctioned shareholders with a loss of UAH 33.0 million, while Credit-Dnipro and Privex-Bank also suffered similar losses of UAH 29.8 million and UAH 27.5 million, respectively.
Overall, in the third quarter, the net profit of 63 solvent banks amounted to UAH 42.33 billion, with provisions released by UAH 5 billion and total assets increasing by UAH 87.25 billion.
The three most profitable state-owned banks were the leaders in terms of asset growth: Privat – UAH 36.84 billion, Oschad – UAH 18.26 billion, and Sens – UAH 11.36 billion. This allowed Sens to return to the top ten banks by assets, from which it had fallen in June before the nationalization, and immediately to 8th place.
In the third quarter, Ukrexim’s assets decreased by UAH 15.65 billion, Pivdennyi’s by UAH 6.99 billion, and Ukrgas’s by UAH 1.54 billion, and 23 banks in total showed a decline in assets.
In the third quarter, banks increased their portfolio of government bonds by UAH 23.56 billion, with City – UAH 4.61 billion and Ukrgas – UAH 4.48 billion, followed by TAScombank, FUIB and IIB – from UAH 2.5 billion to UAH 2.1 billion.
In July-September, Ukrexim reduced its investments in domestic government bonds the most – UAH 2.45 billion, Sens – UAH 1.24 billion, Privat – UAH 0.7 billion, and First Investment Bank – UAH 0.48 billion.
Overall, PrivatBank remained the most profitable bank by a wide margin in the first nine months of this year, with UAH 43.37 billion, or 39.5% of the banking system’s net profit for the period.
In January-September, Oschad received UAH 14.18 billion in net profit, Raif – UAH 6.14 billion, FUIB – UAH 5.68 billion, Ukrsibbank – UAH 5.66 billion, Sens – UAH 5.58 billion, OTP Bank – UAH 4.75 billion, City – UAH 4.23 billion, and Ukrexim – UAH 3.60 billion.
Among the 12 banks whose net profit for the first nine months exceeded UAH 2 billion were Ukrgas – UAH 2.92 billion, Universal (mono) – UAH 2.86 billion, and Credit Agricole – UAH 2.29 billion.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has virtually eliminated the demand for foreign currency loans, contributing to a reorientation to lending in the national currency, which is a good indicator for the economy, according to Pervin Dadashova, director of the NBU’s Financial Stability Department.
“Hryvnia lending prevails, and in general, in principle, the hryvnia is more attractive for lending than foreign currency. This is very important, and I think that this love for lending in hryvnia should continue,” she said at a discussion held by the Center for Economic Strategies (CES).
Dadashova noted that earlier the main motivation for foreign currency lending was lower interest rates on such loans, which led to problems in the absence of real needs and revenues in foreign currency. According to her, the risks of foreign currency lending, which increased during the war, have sharply reduced business interest in the dumb
The Director of the NBU’s Financial Stability Department noted that the loan portfolio has recently stabilized and returned to a slight increase, and now banks are faced with the task of compensating for its loss during the war, which, according to various metrics, amounted to about 15%.
“Now the quality of the loan portfolio is absolutely normal, it is even better than before the war. That is, banks are not losing as much credit risk as they did a few months ago,” the expert emphasized.
She clarified that the small growth in the loan portfolio so far is largely due to the growth under government support programs.
“However, a greater openness to new lending is already noticeable, including in our surveys,” Dadashova noted.
Among other trends, she noted an increase in the share of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the loan portfolio to more than 50%.
“A significant part of them belongs to business groups, so it is not a pure small business, it is still a big business, but it is structured in a certain way. But in the total portfolio, 15% of loans are granted to debtors who do not belong to business groups,” the expert said, emphasizing that they are a “good engine” for market lending.
The National Bank of Ukraine has fined Insurance Broker Grand Insur LLC (Odesa) UAH 51 thousand for violating the requirements in the field of financial monitoring.
According to the regulator’s website, the fine was imposed for violation of the requirements of clause 5, p. II of Regulation #140 and clauses 12, 13 of the Annex to Regulation #140 in terms of failure to submit reports to the National Bank on prevention and counteraction.
