State banks write off UAH 26 bln in non-performing loans

Ukrainian state banks in the first half of 2020 wrote off non-performing loans (NPLs) worth UAH 26 billion at the expense of reserves and restructured such loans worth UAH 2.6 billion, the Ministry of Finance reported.

To reduce the share of NPLs, state-owned banks in the first half of 2020 also filed 29,000 new claims to collect debts for a total amount of about UAH 10 billion, the ministry's press service says.

Read alsoUkrainian banks' net profit falls by almost 23% in Jan-JulyIn general, as of July 1, state banks filed more than 57,000 such statements with the courts, worth UAH 38 billion.

Judgments in favor of state-owned banks

Over the entire period, the courts ruled to recover 54,000 such cases for UAH 8 billion in favor of state-owned banks, while state executors opened 164,000 enforcement proceedings worth UAH 72 billion.

According to the Ministry of Finance, in general, in the first half of the year, state banks reduced their NPL by UAH 6.1 billion – to UAH 391 billion, and their share in the sector's loan portfolio – to 63.1%.

In the sectoral context, the largest volume of non-performing loans is concentrated in wholesale and retail trade, production of chemicals and chemical products, food production, and metallurgy.

Background

Starting from 2020, banks will analyze until October 1 annually whether there are criteria for writing off their impaired assets and write them off to get rid of non-performing loans.

Read alsoUkraine's finance ministry reduces placement of gov't bonds by 75%According to these criteria, it is allowed to write off an asset, for which a reserve has been formed in accordance with the requirements of IFRS 9 "Financial Instruments" in the full amount of its gross book value, if the delay in repayment of the debt amount or part thereof is over 36 months.

The share of bad loans in Ukrainian banks at the end of 2019 for the first time in recent years fell below 50%, to 48.4% as of year-start.

In 2018, the share of NPLs in Ukraine's banking system decreased by 1.69 p.p. to 52.85% as of January 1, 2019, while the volume of such loans dropped by UAH 35.8 billion, to UAH 630.8 billion.