Supreme Court confirms Bakhmatiuk's obligation to pay over UAH 1.2 billion of VAB Bank's debt to NBU

On May 27, 2025, the Civil Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court considered the cassation appeal of the former owner of PJSC "VAB Bank" Oleh Bakhmatiuk and left unchanged the decision of the court of first and appellate instances to recover from him as a guarantor over UAH 1.2 billion in favor of the National Bank to repay the bank's debt under a previously granted refinancing loan.

This is stated in the NBU's message, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

In 2014, PJSC "VB Bank" concluded a stabilization loan agreement with the National Bank for the amount of UAH 1.2 billion. Oleh Bakhmatiuk vouched for the bank's return of the loan funds and concluded a surety agreement with the National Bank. Thus, he assumed personal obligations for the repayment of the financial institution's debt to the National Bank.

Since the owner of the bank did not fulfill the obligations assumed under the surety agreement, the National Bank applied to the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv with a statement of claim to collect the debt from Bakhmatiuk.

On January 30, 2025, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv adopted a decision to collect UAH 1.2 billion from Bakhmatiuk. The Kyiv Court of Appeal, by its resolution of October 28, 2025, left the aforementioned decision unchanged.

Currently, five more cases on claims are pending before the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv National Bank to Oleh Bakhmatiuk for debts of PJSC "VB Bank" and PJSC "Commercial Bank "Financial Initiative".

The total amount of debt that the National Bank is collecting from Bakhmatiuk is about UAH 7.9 billion.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the NBU board classified PJSC "VB Bank" as insolvent on November 20, 2014, and on March 19, 2015, it adopted a decision to revoke the banking license and liquidate this bank.