Banking system overcapitalized - NBU

Ukrainian banks as of the beginning of 2026 have a sufficient capital reserve and comply with the established capital adequacy standards.

The National Bank of Ukraine has announced this, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

According to the data on prudential ratios for the banking system as of January 1, 2026, the regulatory capital amounts to UAH 290.8 billion, which is UAH 22 billion or 8% higher than as of January 1, 2025.

At the same time, due to the accelerated increase in loans by banks, capital adequacy ratios slightly decreased over the year, although banks continue to meet capital adequacy ratios with a significant margin, in particular:

• regulatory capital adequacy ratio, which must be at least 10%, is 15.83%;
• tier 1 capital adequacy ratio (at least 7.5%) - 15.54%;
• tier 1 core capital adequacy ratio (at least 5.625%) - 15.54%.

The 2025 resilience assessment, which was carried out according to the standard procedure for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, confirmed that banks generally have sufficient capital reserves to cover risks and further increase their loan portfolio even in the event of hypothetical crisis scenarios.

Only a few institutions, which are subject to higher capital adequacy requirements, are implementing restructuring programs agreed with the NBU.

The increase in the corporate income tax to 50% in 2026 will somewhat restrain the growth potential of banks' active operations.

Starting from the beginning of 2027, banks will have to comply with Pillar II capital buffers and increased individual capital requirements. By introducing new requirements, the NBU will focus on preserving the financial sector's ability to lend to the economy.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, solvent banks in eleven months of 2025 received a record UAH 146.401 billion in net profit against UAH 131.085 billion in the same period of the previous year.

The corporate income tax rate for banks will increase by 2 times to 50% in 2026 with a simultaneous ban on reducing the financial result before tax by the amount of losses of previous periods.

During 2023-2024, the government decided to tax banks' excess profits at the end of the year.

But in 2025, the tax was not raised and banks will pay corporate income tax at a basic rate of 25%.