In the first quarter of 2024, Ukrainian banks increased their net profit by 18% from last year.

During the first three months of the year, solvent financial institutions showed a ₴40.5B ($1.05B) net profit.

“The main factors in profitability growth in annual terms are an increase in interest income and significantly smaller deductions from reserves for losses from active operations,” the National Bank explained.

The basis of interest income remains investments in low-risk instruments: OVDP and NBU certificates of deposit. Thus, the share of banks’ income from OVDP for the year (from April 1, 2023, to April 1, 2024) increased by 6.7 percentage points to more than 26%.

At the same time, banks are increasing their lending: the volume of hryvnia business loans has been growing for three quarters in a row, and retail loans have been growing for more than a year. From lending to both commercial entities and individuals, solvent banks generated ₴34B in interest income in the first quarter, which is 13% more than last year’s figure.

As of April 1, only eight out of 63 solvent banks were unprofitable, with a total loss of ₴111M ($2.7M).