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8.1.3 Banks specific issues
8.1.4 Bank news
The number of bank branches decreased by almost 200 in 2023. As of January 1, 2024, there were 5,138 working structural bank divisions in Ukraine. During the year, their number decreased by 198. Oschadbank has the largest number of branches with 1,182, regaining its leadership in terms of the number of branches in 2023. State-owned PrivatBank is in second place with 1,132 branches.
Ukraine's reconstruction bank will be launched in six months. A Ukraine reconstruction bank being set up by Kyiv with help from BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase has at least $500M in committed capital and could be ready to launch in five to six months with close to $1B, said vice president of BlackRock Inc. Philip Hildebrand. "We want to be ready to deploy with at least soft commitments from donor countries," Hildebrand said, adding that mobilising BlackRock's assets, which consist of pension funds, would require risk levels to adhere to OECD standards. So far, around 280 projects have applied to the fund. BlackRock and JPMorgan have identified close to 30 projects that could be seriously considered, said Deputy Head of the Office of the President Rostyslav Surma. Penny Pritzker, the US special representative for the recovery of Ukraine, pointed to the fund being raised by JPMorgan and BlackRock, saying that they have reported "early interest from some promising investors willing to take on more risk.”
The EBRD invested €3.8B in Ukraine over two years, exceeding its target.
In 2023, the EBRD directed a record amount of €2.1B to Ukraine, and in 2022 - €1.7B. The largest institutional investor in Ukraine, which significantly increased investment after the invasion of the Russian Federation in February 2022, ended the year exceeding its €3B target for the country for 2022-23,
77 UKRAINE Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com