REUTERS
Ukraine's banking system has overcome the hardest period of the crisis but it remains vulnerable to external shocks and internal risks, said Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeria Gontareva when presenting the regulator's financial stability report.
Gontareva noted that the resumption of lending is curbed by significant debt burden on companies, poor solvency throughout most economic sectors as well as high legal risks.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the banking system of Ukraine including the insolvent financial institutions posted a loss of UAH 77.935 billion in 2015. Of this, the loss of solvent banks amounted to UAH 71.891 billion, and that of insolvent financial institutions – UAH 6.044 billion.
Read alsoNBU names riskiest sectors of Ukraine’s economyIn an effort to streamline the banking system, which started in 2014, the NBU declared 63 banks as insolvent institutions that were transferred under administration of the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund. Since the beginning of this year, the NBU decided to withdraw another 11 financial institutions from the market, including a decision made jointly with the Finance Ministry to liquidate state-run Rodovid Bank.
Read alsoNBU eases requirements for purchasing foreign currency under $6,000As of May 1, there were 109 financial institutions licensed to conduct banking activity in Ukraine. The World Bank expects to see further consolidation of the banking sector in Ukraine and a reduction in the number of operating banks down to 100 in 2016.