Ukraine can only cope with the financial crisis by conducting reforms, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva has said.

"There is a full-scale financial crisis in the country, and we can cope with it only by conducting very swift, I'd say, extreme reforms," she said at a press conference on the results of the year in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to her, the NBU has drastically changed its approach to refinancing banks, and the regulator continues "clearing up" the banking sector by withdrawing insolvent banks and money-laundering banks from the market, and that the Central Bank itself is undergoing reformation.

The NBU has already withdrawn 33 banks from the market, of which seven banks were engaged in money laundering.

The NBU also provided banks with UAH 110 billion in refinancing loans, she said.

"In the entire history of Ukraine's independence, the portfolio of refinancing issued by the NBU to the banking system is estimated at UAH 110 billion, or 7% of GDP today. Believe me, in relation to the whole world, 7% of GDP in refinancing issued to the banking system is quite a small number, I'd say, even a low one," she said.

Since the beginning of this year, banks have received UAH 35.6 billion in refinancing, she added.