Piraeus Bank joins leaders from the business community to discuss strategic planning at the War & Business event hosted by UBN.

Piraeus Bank in Ukraine has reinforced its commitment to supporting business resilience and economic planning through its role as the general sponsor of the recent War & Business: Planning for an Uncertain Winter and 2025 event, organized by the Ukrainian Business News (UBN) community. The event, held at the Parkovyi Congress Center in Kyiv on September 27^th, brought together key government officials, top business leaders, and industry experts to discuss strategic planning and critical topics affecting Ukraine’s business and economic outlook.

With the theme centered around navigating unpredictable dynamics such as energy disruptions, Western funding support, and the impact of the ongoing war, the event featured two in-depth panel discussions. The first-panel discussion, Business & Economic Outlook, featured Volodymyr Lepushynskyi, Director of the Monetary Policy and Economic Analysis Department at the National Bank of Ukraine, and Oleksii Sobolev, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine, who highlighted the anticipated challenges stemming from energy shortages and labor market developments for the coming winter.

The second panel discussion, Business Outlook for 2024/2025, brought together business leaders from multinational corporations, including Alessandro Zanelli, CEO at Nestlé South Eastern Europe, Oliver Gierlichs, General Manager at Bayer, Ievgenii Ivanytsia, Country Director at Jysk Ukraine, and Yannis Kyriakopoulos, Chairman of the Board of Piraeus Bank in Ukraine. The speakers discussed how companies are preparing for the winter of 2024 and beyond, touching on issues such as energy limitations, the war’s outlook, and strategic workforce management.

“Right now, we don’t see many small businesses planning for the long term, given the ongoing uncertainty because of the war. However, I remain optimistic about Ukraine’s economic future as long as the situation on the ground stabilizes,” opined Yannis Kyriakopoulos during the live discussion panel. “We are already witnessing large investments coming in, with global companies like Nestlé and Bayer, which already had a presence in Ukraine, opening new factories. We are also seeing this with Jysk and other retail chains. As a bank, we are also expanding by opening new branches and investing in our digital infrastructure and human capital. This is the right signal for investors outside of Ukraine, and this is usually how investments start from companies already on the ground. This will be followed by local businesses as well. Debt capital is available from banks and IFIs for Ukrainian businesses.”

As for its future plans, Piraeus Bank will continue to focus on supporting local businesses and, importantly, on assisting war veterans as they return and reintegrate into civilian life. We believe these individuals will play a significant role in rebuilding the economy, particularly as private entrepreneurs.

The moderators of the War & Business event asked the panelists about the latest financial trends and how their organizations see them from their point of view. In response to this, Yannis Kyriakopoulos shared his perspective: “We are seeing an increase in working capital loans, lower interest rates, and a surge in new products from international financial institutions that combine loans with grants, which have become very popular. Interestingly, deposits are growing faster than loans over the past seven months, indicating a strong tendency toward saving. The public trusts the banks. The sector’s resilience has become a case study for the entire world, as well as its inventiveness and agility, with instant data transfer to the cloud, uninterrupted operations, and the NBU’s intention to establish financial inclusion in banking being some of many examples. Again, these add to the positive signals that investors seek before they consider investing”.