PrivatBank May Be Nationalized If Fails To Fulfill Capital-Increase Program - NBU

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) does not rule that PrivatBank may be nationalized if it fails to fulfill the capital-increase program.

NBU Deputy Governor Dmytro Solohub said this at 3s.tv, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"We've always been stating two ways when a bank is not fulfilling the capital-increase program or if the shareholders are unable to fulfill it: insolvency for non-systematically important and nationalization for systematically important banks," he told.

There are three systematically important banks in Ukraine now: state-owned Oschadbank and Ukreximbank, and private PrivatBank.

In August, PrivatBank decided to increase its authorized capital by 12% or UAH 2,583 million to UAH 21.26 billion.

Solohub also cited NBU Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova who said on October 21 that the central bank is now verifying the capital-increase programs.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, mass media have reported alleged nationalization of PrivatBank.

The bank refuted these reports and called them a fake.

PrivatBank recorded a profit of UAH 216 million for 2015 and UAH 530.9 million for H1 2016.

Businessman Ihor Kolomoiskyi owns 41.66% of shares in it and businessman Hennadii Boholiubov 33.252,5%.

Information from the NBU, as of July 1 the bank ranked 1st in terms of the amount of assets (UAH 268.9 billion) among the 101 operating banks.