Ukraine's banking sector earned a record after-tax profit of UAH16.762bn ($457 mn) in January 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on March 6.

Leading the charge was the state-owned PrivatBank, which alone contributed UAH5.869bn ($160 mn) to the total earnings, despite also carrying the largest share of non-performing loans (NLPs).

The NBU reported that the other major contributors include state-owned Oschadbank and Ukreximbank, securing second and third places with profits of UAH1.556bn ($42 mn) and UAH1.061bn ($29 mn) respectively.

Amongst the foreign banking groups, Raiffeisen Bank led in fourth place overall, generating UAH1.054bn ($29 mn), closely followed by another state entity, Ukrgasbank, with earnings of UAH0.940bn ($26 mn).

Out of the 63 banks evaluated, 55 reported positive earnings totaling UAH16.817bn ($459 mn), whereas eight banks posted losses amounting to UAH55mn hryvnia ($1.5 mn).

Looking back at the fiscal performance in 2023, Ukrainian solvent banks enjoyed a profitable year with an after-tax gain of UAH86.545bn ($2.36bn). This financial buoyancy comes despite the government’s decision to imposed heavy taxes on the sector recently to tap their windfall profits. The tax rate on banks was hiked from 18% to an unprecedented 50% in 2023, but will be reduced again to the still high rate of 25% starting 2024.

In 2022, the profit after tax stood at UAH24.9bn ($679 mn), marking a substantial increase from the UAH77.4bn ($2.11bn) record profit witnessed in 2021.