Ukraine extends sanctions against Russian banks
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) has extended restrictive measures against subsidiaries of Russian banks in Ukraine, the NSDC said.
Earlier on Thursday, Poroshenko called for this measure on his Twitter account. “Banks with state-owned Russian capital are already winding up their business in Ukraine, and their withdrawal from the market is only a matter of time,” he said.
“I would like to inform you that during 2017, the net assets of Ukrainian banks with Russian state capital decreased by one third, while the amounts of funds of individuals and legal entities on deposit with them decreased by 28% and 34%, respectively. Over the past three years, banks with state-owned Russian capital in the net assets of the banking system of Ukraine have decreased almost in half - from 10.6% to 5.6%,” Poroshenko said at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, as quoted by the 112 Ukraine TV channel.
“Our approach proved to be correct and effective,” the Ukrainian president said.
The sanctions against five subsidiaries of Russian banks - VS Bank, Sberbank of Ukraine, VTB, BM Bank and Prominvestbank - were introduced by a decree of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in mid-March 2017. The length of the sanctions was to be one year.
A month later, the deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine Katerina Rozhkova reported that banks with Russian connections have potential buyers. At the same time, she did not rule out the possibility that Russian banks will not be able to find buyers for their Ukrainian subsidiaries, and they will have to simply settle accounts with customers and take out licenses.
During the past 12 months, VS Bank, on the list of sanctioned banks, changed owners and was sold by Sberbank to Serhiy Tihipko’s TAS group. Andrey Kostin, CEO of VTB, said last September that he had two potential buyers for VTB Bank, but they did not receive a permit for the deal from the National Bank of Ukraine.