NBU permits purchase of 12 banks since early 2015

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has permitted the acquisition of 12 banks and rejected 25 applications to buy large stakes in 15 banks since early 2015, the NBU said on its website.

According to the report, the regulator permitted Volodymyr Avramenko to acquire bank Trust. In addition, the central bank permitted Kazakhstan's Kazkommertsbank to increase its stake in BTA Bank, ProCredit Bank to do the same in European banking holding ProCredit Holding AG & Co KGaA. The regulator also permitted Vadim Novinsky to legalize his holding in Unex Bank, and allowed Volodymyr Klymenko to do the same in Ukrinbank, Viktor Polischuk in Mykhailivsky Bank, and Maksym Shpak in Radical Bank.

The NBU also permitted the Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund to sell one insolvent and one transition bank, VBR Bank, which belonged to Oleksandr Yanukovych to Viktor Polischuk and the transition bank created on the basis of Omega Bank to Oleksandr Stetsiuk.

According to the report, 35 out of 37 rejections concerned insolvent banks, and 40 other applicants had their application dossiers returned under their request.

"Now in many cases the NBU really rejected applications to buy large stakes. The reasons of the refusal are that applicants do not disclose their end beneficiaries or cannot confirm their property possessions," the press service said, citing director of the registration and licensing department at the NBU Leonid Antonenko.