Page 42 - Ukraine OUTLOOK 2025

The share of IT in GDP has decreased against the backdrop of 4.4% GDP growth. Currently, there are 2,118 active, verified IT companies in Ukraine. Of the 51% of top managers planning to expand their representative offices, more than 33% want to do so abroad. The most popular destination is Poland.
• 6.6 Banking sector
Growing fat on the high interest rates paid by the government on domestic OVDP bonds, banks have been one of the most profitable sectors in Ukraine for the last two years.
As an extensive clean-up of the banking sector had already been completed well before the war broke out, it went into the war with its NLPs provisioned for, well capitalised and with plenty of liquidity. The shock of the Russian invasion was severe, but the sector weathered the storm easily.
The banking sector has been the biggest buyer of the OVDP bonds, a major source of domestic funding for the government, but the state has clawed back much of the profits earned by the sector with a special 50% profit tax at the end of 2023. The rate was supposed to have been lowered to 25% in 2024, but the cash-strapped government imposed the 50% rate for a second time at the end of 2025.
After a good 2024, the banking sector is likely to repeat its performance in 2025.
Ukrainian banks increased their net profit by 2.3% to UAH125.55bn in the first 11 months of 2024. The profitability rating is headed by the state-owned PrivatBank, which earned UAH50.26bn. According to the NBU, state-owned Oschadbank is in second place (UAH12.77bn) and the foreign banking group Raiffeisen Bank is in third place with UAH6.714bn.
State banks are displacing their competitors: After paying taxes, 62 Ukrainian banks generated UAH117.63bn ($2.8bn) in profits for the first nine months of 2024. Even though the banking sector's tax rate rose significantly in the year, total profit is 7% more than in 2023 (UAH109.85bn).
State banks produced 63% of the profit among all financial institutions. This is mainly due to PrivatBank's earnings – UAH48.35bn, or 41% of total profit of all banks. Over the year, Privat's profit grew by 11%.
Banks with foreign capital account for 23% of the total profit, UAH27.32bn. Raiffeisen remains the leader in this group with UAH6.15bn in profit and is also a leading conduit for FX operations for the country.
Private banks earned UAH16.25bn in profits, with these rising by 22% this year. A third of the group's earnings are accounted for by FUIB – UAH5.18bn (-9%). The largest increase in profit among all banks occurred at MTB Bank,
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