Ukraine Biggest Bank – PrivatBank Nationalized Over Insolvency

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, World News Monday, December 19th, 2016

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Ukraine’s biggest commercial bank, PrivatBank, has been nationalized.

The move was aimed at protecting 20 million customers and “preserving financial stability in the country”.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has on Sunday declared that PrivatBank was insolvent. The government subsequently backed the nationalization.

The country’s apex bank indicated that the problems faced by PrivatBank were mainly caused by its “imprudent lending policy” which led to capital losses.

Its Governor Valeria Gonatraeva said they were confident that the decision to transfer PrivatBank to state ownership was “the only possible way to protect deposits placed with this bank and rescue the financial system”.

In order to calm nerves, the Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has reassured PrivatBank depositors that their money is safe; assuring that the bank was operating normally.

PrivatBank is part-owned by the powerful billionaire Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who also has big stakes in the media and energy industries and has persistently come into conflict with President Poroshenko.