Businessman Serhii Tihipko plans to merge VS Bank (Lviv) with TAScombank (Kyiv) after completing its acquisition.
Tihipko announced this at the "Ukrainian Banking Forum CIS Bankers," which took place in Kyiv from October 19 to 20, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.
Tihipko said that TAScombank grew by 114% last year and that the value of its assets has risen by 70% this year.
"I hope that we will again see a 100% annual growth by purchasing the bank (VS Bank)... At the same time, we are not planning to reduce the number of branches," said Tihipko.
According to him, his group is also interested in buying problem debts, in addition to buying banks.
Tihipko said it was important to have the appropriate size of assets to allow investment in technology.
"Priority number one is technology. We are launching the Monobank mobile banking service on the basis of Universal Bank. We will launch the next technology on the basis of TAScombank, which will be for small and medium-sized businesses, in December. We are cooperating with former colleagues from PrivatBank in both cases," he said.
According to Tihipko, Universal Bank will be a narrowly specialized retail bank, in which modern technologies will be concentrated, in the future.
According to him, the priorities of the bank include continued integration of the companies operating with the banking group.
"We have now fully integrated CreditMarket, which provides cash loans and consumer loans. It now has the opportunity to transfer part of its products onto our balance sheet and receive funding. We have also completed the integration of the Ukrainian Leasing Fund, which we recently acquired. It now has unlimited opportunity for growth..." Tihipko said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Tihipko is the owner of the TAS financial and industrial group.
The group is represented on the financial market by TAScombank and the TAS Insurance Group.
Tihipko completed the purchase of Universal Bank and the Aegon Life Ukraine insurance company in December 2016.
TAScombank has acquired part of the assets and liabilities of the insolvent Diamantbank and Novyi Bank in 2017.
In August 2017, Tihipko applied to the National Bank of Ukraine and the Antimonopoly Committee for permission to purchase VS Bank from Sberbank.
The Antimonopoly Committee has already granted him permission to acquire VS Bank, and the National Bank of Ukraine has said that it sees no obstacles to purchase of the bank.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, TAScombank was the 19th largest bank by asset size (UAH 10.6 billion) and VS Bank was the 28th largest by asset size (UAH 3.6 billion) out of the 88 banks operating in Ukraine as of July 1.
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