Ukrainian banks are in the middle of their longest lending expansion in 15 years, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), with state-owned PrivatBank leading a corporate-credit surge, businesses of every size turning to bank financing even as households retreat from long-term deposits, and farmers borrowing at a record pace to replace equipment lost to the war.

Hryvnia business lending has been growing at close to 30% a year for more than 12 months, the NBU's Financial Stability Report found, the strongest and longest run of corporate credit growth since before the 2008 crisis. It comes despite a wartime economy still absorbing Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, and even as the central bank starts flagging early strain — falling bank profitability and a growing state subsidy bill — behind the headline growth.

PrivatBank leads the corporate push

State-owned PrivatBank, Ukraine's largest lender by assets, expects continued strong growth in business lending in 2026 after expanding its corporate loan portfolio by 29.6% in the first half of the year, board member Yevhen Zaigraiev said UBN reports. By the end of the year the portfolio may grow by more than 60%, building on last year's 62% expansion — roughly double the broader market's growth rate of about 30%.

Investment and leasing financing, mostly for small and medium-sized businesses buying agricultural machinery, transport and production equipment, grew almost 39% in the first half, Zaigraiev said. PrivatBank issues UAH4bn-13.5bn ($89mn-$301mn) in business loans a month depending on the volume of large corporate deals, with UAH4bn-5bn ($89mn-$112mn) of that going to smaller firms. Agriculture and food production remain the bank's largest lending segment, ahead of transport and logistics and industry, including the defence-industrial complex.

The lending push comes as PrivatBank positions itself for a planned IPO, and follows a run of its own agricultural-lending expansion that has made farming the largest single slice of its loan book.

NBU flags a 15-year record — and a subsidy bill

Over the past decade, since the 2014-2015 banking crisis, Ukrainian banks have doubled the number of active corporate borrowers to more than 17,000 companies, the NBU said. Business demand for loans remains high despite the economic slowdown and wartime risks, with the net hryvnia loan portfolio's annual growth rate exceeding 30% for about a year. Loans to the processing industry and construction sector are growing fastest, followed by trade and agriculture; energy has become a separate priority, with banks financing new generation and storage capacity, and defence-industrial lending is expanding under a state programme that has already channelled more than UAH9bn ($201mn) to defence companies.

More than 70% of banks' net loans go to companies in satisfactory, strong or excellent financial condition, and the drag from old non-performing loans is easing as banks apply tighter risk screening. But the central bank is also warning that bank profitability is starting to slide, citing rising administrative costs, credit-risk expenses returning to pre-war levels, and higher taxation — an echo of the windfall-style bank tax Ukraine's parliament approved for 2026 over lenders' own objections that takes 50% of their profits.

Deposits retreat as lending accelerates

The flip side of the credit boom is a shift away from savings. Total deposits held in Ukrainian bank accounts reached a record UAH3.2tn ($71bn), up 1.3% since the start of the year, but inflows are slowing — annual deposit growth decelerated to a three-month low of 15.1% in June. Individuals increasingly prefer current accounts to long-term deposits, whose share of household deposits fell to a historic low of 32.6%.

Loans to residents, meanwhile, rose 12.4% since the start of the year to UAH1.3tn ($29bn), with annual lending growth hitting a seven-month high of 11.1% in June. The corporate sector drove most of that expansion: hryvnia loans to businesses grew UAH26.09bn ($582mn) in June alone, taking the total to more than UAH641bn ($14.3bn) by month-end.

Agriculture borrows to rebuild, not just survive

Ukraine's agricultural lending is also growing at a record pace, with the sector's total loan portfolio reaching $3.9bn, well above the $2.8bn recorded in January 2022, just before Russia's full-scale invasion. The World Bank puts the war's cumulative damage to Ukrainian agriculture at about $25bn, but more than 70% of current agricultural loans are now going toward modernising and renewing equipment rather than plugging short-term cash gaps — a sign the sector is shifting from survival to development.

The state's Affordable Loans 5-7-9% programme remains the market's main driver, accounting for 45% of all agricultural lending and, in frontline regions, often the only financing available to farmers at all. Early in the full-scale war, loans mostly covered sowing campaigns; farmers are now increasingly borrowing to buy new equipment and expand capacity.

IntelliNews has tracked the build-up of this credit cycle through the year: from record hryvnia business lending in May, to long-term investment lending gaining momentum in June, to the 15-year-record/subsidy-debt warning first flagged on July 1.