Ukraine's banking system reports record-high loss in 2016
Xinhua, February 8, 2017 Adjust font size:
Ukraine's banking system last year showed its worst performance ever on the back of the systemic problems in the country's largest financial institution, the Privatbank -- the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on Tuesday.
"In 2016, the banking sector has recorded a historically high loss of 5.8 billion U.S. dollars due to transferring reserves to the loan portfolio of the Privatbank," the NBU said in a statement.
According to the NBU, the capital shortage of the Privatbank reached about 4.95 billion dollars last year, while the other banks have reported a consolidated loss of about 844 million dollars.
The consolidated loss of the Ukrainian banks, excluding the Privatbank, has fallen by almost three-fold year-on-year in 2016, raising hopes that the banking system may return to profit this year, the NBU said.
The Ukrainian banking sector plunged into recession in 2014, when the conflict started in the eastern regions, slowing down the country' s economic activity.
In December 2016, the Ukrainian government has nationalized the Privatbank citing its huge capital shortage which threatened to hinder stability of Ukraine's financial system. Endit