Ukraine started 2017 with a bang. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the finance ministry had just announced the nationalisation of the country’s largest bank, Privatbank. The move was welcomed by the international community, but it significantly changed the equilibrium in the country’s banking sector by inflating the proportion of state-owned institutions to 56% of system assets, compared with only 18% at the end of 2013, according to Ukrainian investment bank Dragon Capital. While the Ukrainian government has sweeping plans to privatise some of its stakes and to announce a new strategy for the country’s state-owned banks, most 2017 targets in relation to that were missed.
On top of that, internationally respected NBU governor Valeria Gontareva resigned from her post in May 2017 and so far no replacement has been approved. So where is the Ukrainian banking sector heading in 2018?
