The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court has announced a break until January 31 in hearing a cassation appeal of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the Finance Ministry and PrivatBank against rulings of the courts of lower instances in litigation with the Surkis family regarding the annulment of the decisions of the NBU by which the central bank recognized them persons affiliated with PrivatBank and invalidating the agreements on exchange of their funds in the bank in the amount over UAH 1 billion to the bank's shares (bail-in) later purchased by the state for UAH 1.

"A break was announced until January 31, 2020. The postponement was due to the need to study the case materials by the PGO," a source familiar with the hearing of this case, which is being heard behind the closed doors, told Interfax-Ukraine.

PrivatBank, according to available information, had previously executed the decision of the trial court and the court of appeal in favor of the Surkis family. However, for the National Bank, the Finance Ministry and the bank, in addition to these payments, it is important to defend the legality of the bail-in procedure, if the bank loses to the Surkis family, it is more likely that other participants in this procedure will go to court for a total of over UAH 29 billion. In addition, its recognition as illegal will call into question the entire nationalization of PrivatBank.

According to the senior legal adviser of the legal department of the NBU Serhiy Kolosiuk, today there are already about 50 bail-in trials for a total of UAH 20 billion.

"Bail-in is a standard international practice when the funds of owners and affiliated persons are converted into the bank's capital. When the state enters the capital of such a bank, this is done so that taxpayers' money is not spent on compensating money to ex-owners and related parties," the National Bank said on its Facebook page, quoting Kolosiuk.