REUTERS
The quality of loan portfolios improved across all groups of banks, except those with Russian capital.
The share of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Ukraine's banking system in 2019 is below 50% for the first time in three years, having shrunk to 48.4% as of January 1, 2020.
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"Loan portfolio quality improved across all bank groups, except banks with Russian capital," the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on its website on February 10.
The main improvement factors were the following: an increase in retail lending (by about 30% year-over-year); major credit portfolio restructuring of two state-owned banks of over UAH 30 billion (US$1.2 billion); major efforts by banks with foreign capital to optimize portfolios by selling and writing down NPLs on the account of loss allowance; and appreciation of the hryvnia, Ukraine's national currency.
"Today, the share of NPLs remains high, however it poses no major risks to the financial sector, since the coverage ratio exceeds 95%," the regulator added.
UNIAN memo. The share of non-performing loans in Ukraine's banking system in 2018 shrank by 1.69 percentage points, to 52.85%, or by UAH 35.8 billion (US$1.5 billion) to UAH 630.8 billion (US$25.8 billion) as of January 1, 2019.