As of August 1, 137 banks were licensed for banking operations / Photo from UNIAN
The World Bank is expecting consolidation of Ukraine’s banking sector as part of measures of the Ukrainian authorities aimed at improve the sustainability and efficiency of the banking system, with the target reduction of the number of operating banks down to 100 in 2016, according to the Bank’s website.
According to published materials regarding the Second Programmatic Financial Sector Development Policy Loan, the National Bank of Ukraine is already working in this direction by developing additional criteria for early detection of problem banks, and continuing practices of disclosure of the ultimate owners of financial institutions.
To implement the new program, the regulator has to analyze the banks’ lending operations to related parties and improve regulations in this regard.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the NBU has declared 59 banks insolvent since the beginning of 2014. In the last week, three banks were transferred under control of the Individual Deposits Guarantee Fund: Finance and Credit Bank, Integral Bank and National Investments Bank.
As of August 1, 137 banks were licensed for banking operations in Ukraine, including 126 operating banks and excluding the insolvent financial institutions and one sanation bank.