Banking sector successfully withstands first wave of coronavirus crisis - NBU

The Ukrainian banking sector has successfully weathered the first wave of the coronavirus crisis, but banks must be prepared for the negative medium-term consequences, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

“The Ukrainian banking sector faced the coronavirus pandemic crisis in good shape and with sufficient safety margin. The new crisis has not caused failures in the work of the banking system due to the banking sector clean up, the introduction of internationally recognized capital and liquidity requirements, regular stress testing and other measures to improve the sector's reliability,” the NBU stated in its report.   

The National Bank reminded that banks ensured uninterrupted provision of services and safe operation of their networks. The outflow of deposits lasted for just over a week, and then the growth of deposits resumed.

However, the NBU reminded that the financial sector has to be prepared for materialization of adverse lockdown consequences in a medium term.

“The NBU held an express stress test in order to assess the impact of the current crisis on banks. It assessed the impact on capital of 26 large banks under macroeconomic scenario, which is somewhat more adverse than the current NBU forecast published in its Inflation Report in April,” reads the statement.

According to the NBU, the stress test results proved to be in general better than the ones from the last year, they showed that majority of banks were prepared for the crisis.

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