NBU: After peace achieved, banks should reduce share of state sector in loans
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), commenting on the growth of public sector lending in the context of energy shortages, warned against the risk of excessive concentration of such loans and noted that banks carefully evaluate borrowers even among state-owned enterprises.
"In the context of the full-scale invasion, lending to state-owned enterprises is justified; however, once the situation normalizes, banks should gradually reduce the share of state enterprises in their loan portfolios," First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Serhiy Nikolaychuk said during the presentation of the Financial Stability Report on Thursday.
He noted that despite the difficult situation in the energy sector and the finances of state companies, banks are conducting sufficiently thorough borrower analysis. Current approaches to corporate governance and risk management in state banks and state enterprises differ from practices of roughly 10 years ago, including at Naftogaz.
As reported, this year Naftogaz secured loans from four state-owned banks totaling UAH 19.85 billion for gas imports and building reserves in underground storage facilities, including UAH 2.45 billion from Ukreximbank, UAH 3 billion from Oschadbank, UAH 4.7 billion from Ukrgasbank, and UAH 9.7 billion from PrivatBank.