Rada Passes Law On Fridman’s Sense Bank Nationalization

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted the law on nationalization of Sense Bank, which belongs to Mikhail Fridman.

305 parliamentarians voted for the adoption of bill No. 9107-1 as a whole, with the minimum required 226, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

This document gives the National Bank the authority under certain circumstances related to the application of sanctions to the bank and/or owners of significant participation in the bank to decide on:

- prohibition for a person under sanctions  (individual and/or legal entity) to acquire or increase significant participation in the bank;

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

At the same time, it is possible to withdraw a systemically important bank from the market in the absence of signs of insolvency - 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 agreed on a confidant of Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) Simeon Djankov, who received the right to vote on shares owned by shareholders whose reputation was recognized as not safe.

Currently, Djankov, within his powers, participates in the management of the bank.

In July 2022, Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) decided to rename itself to Sense Bank.

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

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

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