Two individuals, Ukrainian citizens, in April 2017 submitted packages of documents to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to obtain its approval for the acquisition of a direct stake in public joint-stock company Prominvestbank (Kyiv), the press service of the central bank has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"Now the documents have been registered and are under consideration. After considering the document the public will receive advance notice," the press service said.

The NBU said that according to Article 34 of the law on banks and banking operations, the central bank can consider the relevant document during three months from the moment of receiving the full package of documents. The NBU would check if business reputation of investors meets the requirements outlined in the NBU legal acts, the regulator will check the financial health of the investors and the origin of the funds.

The NBU has the right to ban companies or individuals from acquiring shares in bank in cases mentioned in the article.

Prominvestbank was founded in 1992. Its largest shareholder as of January 1, 2017 was Vnesheconombank (VEB, Russia, 99.7%).

The bank ranked 11th among 93 operating banks as of December 31, 2016, in terms of total assets worth UAH 34.32 billion, according to the NBU.

VEB several times said it plans to sell the Ukrainian subsidiary in 2017 and recently confirmed that it received four proposals from potential buyers. These are investors from international or Ukrainian jurisdiction, among which is Hungary's OTP.