Page 48 - UKRRptJan21

8.1.3 ​Banks specific issues
Home mortgage loans, long a rarity in Ukraine, are up 23% y/y in December 2020, ​totalling almost $100mn through October. The average size is for $26,000, and 87% are for second homes, reports the National Bank of Ukraine. The secondary home market is more popular because rates are lower — 14.3% — than for first homes — 17.2%.
8.1.4 ​Bank news
Tomasz Fiala, CEO of Dragon Capital, and Ivan Svitek, former Chairman of Alfa Bank Ukraine, have signed an agreement to buy Unex Bank from Vadim Novinsky's Smart Holding​. “The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has already approved the agreement,” Smart Holding said Thursday. Last year, Fiala and Svitek, both Czechs, tried to buy Idea Bank, but could not come to terms with the Polish owner over price, reports Interfax-Ukraine. The price for Unex has not been disclosed. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, Unex has $28mn in assets, making it rank 64th among the 74 banks operating in Ukraine.
Two deputy heads of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Kateryna Rozhkova and Dmytro Sologub, filed a legal claim with the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the NBU Council ​in the ongoing scandal involving their reprimands, the court’s press service reported on December 24. The court is currently deciding to initiate a hearing on this case, the web site said. The claimants are challenging the NBU Council’s decision of October 2 to reprimand them for breaching labour discipline and to declare its distrust in them. Recall, the reprimands were criticized by Goesta Ljungman, the IMF resident representative in Ukraine.
48​ UKRAINE Country Report​ January 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com