Zelenskyy Approves Nationalization Of Fridman's Sense Bank

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law on the nationalization of Sens Bank, which is owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Member of Parliament from the Holos faction, wrote about this in the Telegram channel, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"The President finally signed our bill on the withdrawal from the market of system banks with sub-sanctioned owners No. 9107-1," the MP wrote.

The law enters into force the day after its publication.

And then the NBU is obliged to start the procedure of bank nationalization.

The law empowers the National Bank, under certain circumstances, related to the application of sanctions to the bank and/or the owners of significant participation in the bank, to make decisions on:

- a ban on a subject person (individual and/or legal entity) to acquire or increase a significant share in the bank;

- revocation of a banking license and liquidation of a bank (which is not determined to be systemically important) or withdrawal of a systemically important bank from the market (nationalization).

At the same time, the possibility of withdrawing a systemically important bank from the market in the absence of signs of insolvency is foreseen - in case of applying blocking sanctions to the bank or the owner of a significant participation in it.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in April 2022, the NBU approved the trustee of Alfa Bank (Ukraine) Simeon Djankov, who received the right to vote for shares belonging to shareholders whose reputation is recognized as impeccable.

Djankov currently participates in the management of the bank as part of his powers.

In July 2022, Alfa Bank (Ukraine) decided to change its name to Sense Bank.

In March 2023, the National Bank reported that it had received a letter from a potential investor of Sense Bank (former Alfa Bank (Ukraine)), but had not received the corresponding package of documents.

Also, in March, the National Bank recognized the impeccable business reputation of the owners of significant participation (shareholders) in JSC Sense Bank - ABH Holdings S.A. and ABH Ukraine Limited.

At the end of May 2023, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the nationalization of Sense Bank, which is owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.