UNIAN
The largest bank in Ukraine, PrivatBank, has topped the transparency ranking of Ukrainian banks compiled by the Ukrainian Credit Rating Agency (UCRA), the agency’s director Stanislav Dubko has reported at a press conference.
According to a study, for the third consecutive year Privat has been recognized as a leader in terms of information disclosure (74.88%), with PUMB bank ranked second (74.13 %), and VTB Bank ranked third (71.63%).
The lowest levels of disclosure, according to the study, were seen in the banks Pivdenny (40.19%), and Finansova Initsiatyva (Financial Initiative, 36.38%), which took the last places in the rating of 26 banks.
The agency analyzed information disclosed on the Web sites of Ukrainian banks, included in the first and second groups in terms of assets volumes according to the National Bank of Ukraine’s classification.
According to Dubko, the accuracy of the information published on bank Web sites has not been verified, and the results of the study do not reflect the financial soundness of banks, but only their willingness to disclose information to users.
According to Dubko, the leading banks in the rating have also disclosed information on related companies and transactions with them, and released interim quarterly reports according to international reporting standards.
Dubko notes that a low level of disclosure remains with regard to information on bank risk management strategy, dividend policy, audit reports, and top managers’ remuneration. At the same time, he said, the quality of disclosure regarding planned and already held shareholders' meetings has significantly deteriorated.
According to analysts, the average level of transparency based on the study of 26 banks conducted in 2014 worsened to 57.19%, versus 58.01% in 2013.
"The positive trend aimed at increasing transparency has stopped," Dubko said. According to him, in view of the adverse market conditions in the banking sector, transparency improvement issues have dropped to a secondary priority of banks.