One of the biggest ex-beneficiaries of PrivatBank (Dnipro), Ihor Kolomoisky, has commented on the nationalization of the bank, the website of TSN.ua has said.

"I want to thank the Cabinet of Ministers and personally Volodymyr Groysman. As you know, as a result of the latest wave of customer panic provoked, first of all, by the NBU's (National Bank of Ukraine) actions, we were forced to turn to the Cabinet of Ministers with a proposal to hand over the PrivatBank to the state. I think that the premier and his team have shown real courage by taking this difficult decision. If they had not dared to take this step, it would have endangered the entire financial system of Ukraine," Kolomoisky said in written comments.

He also said that the PrivatBank has become the victim of the NBU's arbitrariness.

"The loan portfolio was provided and balanced in the PrivatBank, which is confirmed by the international audit. However, the NBU was constantly changing its own regulations, inventing ever new ways of artificially reduced capitalization of the bank. Then they began talking about the mythical hole of $150 billion, 97% of tied loans, and that all the money was stolen or moved offshore. But all these figures are the result of an arbitrary change in the accounting policy. Normal central banks usually help banks in difficult times, such as economic crises, occupation or war. But our regulator used all possible tricks to put pressure on the PrivatBank, the former beneficiary said.

Kolomoisky said: "During the negotiations we all bore in mind that the most important thing – the PrivatBank's customers. We defended our bank to the last, up until the moment, when we saw the threat to our customers."