The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will file a cassation claim against a ruling of Kyiv's district administrative court dated April 26, 2019 and the sixth administrative court of appeals dated September 19, 2019, which invalidated the decisions of the NBU to place Astra Bank to the list of troubled and insolvent banks, the central bank has said on its website.

"The counterclaim will be filed after receiving the full text of the ruling in case No. 826/8333/15," the NBU said.

The NBU draws attention to the fact that the courts of the lower instances did not take into account the position of the regulator regarding the established fact of the existence of a concentration of Astra Bank funds in Delta Bank, which at that time was already classified as troubled, in the amount of UAH 163.8 million, or 91.2% of assets Astra Bank. This is an indisputable sign of risky activities of the bank, which threatens the interests of depositors and creditors of the bank, in connection with which the NBU classified the bank as troubled.

According to the report, in addition, the NBU said during the court hearings that Astra Bank did not offer any effective measures to restore liquidity and bring the bank's activities in accordance with the requirements of the law. This is evidence of the reasonableness of the National Bank's decision to classify the bank as insolvent before the period of 180 days after classifying it as troubled expired. The NBU also said that the legislation determines the discretionary powers of the central bank and the NBU board specifically establishes the fact that the bank has committed risky activities that threaten the interests of bank depositors and creditors.

On March 19, 2015, the NBU decided to classify Astra Bank as insolvent.

Astra Bank was founded at the end of 2007. In September 2013, Mykola Lahun, the main shareholder of Delta Bank, acquired Astra Bank through Kalouma Holdings Limited.

According to the NBU, on January 1, 2015, Astra Bank ranked 151st among 158 banks operating in the country in terms of total assets (UAH 170.595 million).

Delta Bank was founded in 2006. Its largest shareholders by the beginning of 2015 were Lahun (70.6059%) and Cargill Financial Services International, Inc. (29.3941%).