Ukraine's banking breaks the 'world record' with highest share of non-performing loans

"We have established a somewhat unpleasant and very costly record for the [country's] economy and banking sector: the highest share of non-performing loans has been recorded in Ukraine in the entire history of world observations," Vavryshchuk said at a briefing on December 18.

Read alsoUkraine's central bank sees insolvent banks' refinancing loan debts shrinkingHe said the problem had already been addressed, as the banks had already formed the necessary reserves for those debts, having reduced pressure on capital and profitability.

"But we need to do something with the bad debts. They need to be more actively handled by clearing up, writing off or restructuring," the NBU official added.

According to the regulator's report on financial sustainability presented at the briefing, the share of non-performing loans is gradually decreasing after reaching its historic high of 58% in July.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the amount of non-performing loans in default (which will not be repaid with a 100% probability) at Ukrainian banks had totaled UAH 587.079 billion (US$21.2 billion), accounting for 56.5% of the total volume of loans issued as of November 1, 2017.