Page 39 - UKRRptAug19

8.0 Financial & capital markets 8.1 Bank sector overview
Ukraine’s banking sector is back in profit and starting to grow. The bad debt has been provisioned for and in July the banks started retiring their non-performing loans. However, the sector is still very sick and its full recovery will take several more years. NPLs in particular remain at over 50% of the loan book.
8.1.1 Earnings
The net profit of solvent banks in Ukraine in January-June 2019 amounted to UAH31bn, which is 3.7 times more than in the same period last year (UAH8.3bn), the NBU said on its Facebook page. The NBU pointed to three factors of growth in bank profits: a 20% increase in net interest income of banks, to UAH39bn, a growth in net commission income by 17%, to UAH21bn, and a positive result from revaluation and from transactions on currency sale and purchase – UAH10.4bn. According to the NBU, there were 76 operating banks in Ukraine as of July 1, 2019.
Last year, the country's banking system as a whole returned to profitability for the first time since 2013.
Ukraine's central bank has transformed the entire banking sector of the country over the past four years after years of massive fraud. Specifically, the NBU has withdrawn the licences of around 100 lenders, many of them due to their
39 UKRAINE Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com