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8.1.3 ​Banks specific issues
During the second quarter, Ukrainian banks permanently closed 304 bank branches​, or 4% of the Q1 total of 7,884, reports the central bank. State-owned Oschadbank closed 8% of its branches, ending June with 2,097, the largest number in the country.
As part of Zelenskiy’s push to drive down interest rates, the new state program "Affordable Loans 5-7-9%" has received applications from entrepreneurs for loans totaling $300mn​. Zelenskiy said last week that home mortgages have started to fall below 10%. With annual inflation around 2%, Oleksiy Blinov, head of research for Alfa-Bank Ukraine, writes: “This leaves some room for further (limited) interest rate cuts for the NBU, and we think a 5-5.5% decision is likely on July 23 (current prime rate is 6%).”
Home mortgages at 10% a year is the goal of a new “mass mortgage lending program” to be launched this fall​ by the National Bank of Ukraine, acting central bank head Roshkova tells Interfax-Ukraine. “In the fourth quarter, it will be possible to launch a mass mortgage lending program,” she said, stressing that “high quality borrowers” would get this low rate for economic reasons, not for fiat.
8.1.4 ​Bank news
Privatbank says its former owners laundered $760mn in the US, according to an amended lawsuit filed in a Delaware court in July​, reports RFE/RL. In the original lawsuit filed last year, the new management of Ukraine’s largest bank charged the former owners, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, of laundering $623mn. After the bank was nationalized, in 2016, Ukraine’s central bank accused the former managers of channeling 90% of loans to the owners’ companies.
55​ UKRAINE Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com