Head of the NBU stated that Ukrainian banks showed extraordinary resilience during the pandemic

NBU Chairman Kyrylo Shevchenko states that the Ukrainian banking sector has shown high resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shevchenko expressed this opinion in a publication for the influential American analytics center, Atlantic Council, Ukrinform reports.

"The Ukrainian banking sector's never been so stable," the head of the NBU said.

According to him, during the pandemic, Ukrainian banks have proved that they can quite meet modern challenges in capital, liquidity, profitability, and technological innovation. And the most striking characteristic of this period has been the return of public confidence.

"The short outflow of deposits, which everyone witnessed during the first weeks of quarantine restrictions in March 2020, is now a distant memory," Shevchenko said.

Now, he assured, the population's deposits are expanding rapidly in Ukraine: "The annual growth rate of deposits from households in the national currency is 27%, and in foreign currency, it's 5%."

As the head of the NBU pointed out, there was a decrease in interest rates on loans, which showed an increase in loans to businesses by 2.2%, and loans to households by 3%, in the last two months of summer.

"The current favorable conditions offer Ukrainian businesses with opportunities to get more affordable loans. It allows them to cover short-term needs and finance large-scale projects," Shevchenko said.

He added that the Ukrainian banking system is gradually digitizing its services, expanding opportunities for customers. In addition, a 24/7 electronic payment system was launched in August.

"It gives banks operating in Ukraine the opportunity to make customers' payments around the clock," the head of the National Bank stated.

Shevchenko stressed that it's too early to talk about a rise of improvements in the financing, "but we are certainly moving in the right direction."

In this context, the head of the NBU assured that despite the difficulties for the world economy, the Ukrainian government intends to continue privatizing state-owned banks.

"We have already discussed plans to reduce the state's presence in the Ukrainian banking sector with representatives of the London Stock Exchange. Our current strategy of partial privatization of state-owned banks in Ukraine involves that steps to sell will begin no later than the end of 2024," Kyrylo Shevchenko said.