PrivatBank Accepts Bank of the Year in Ukraine Award

PrivatBank accepted the award for Bank of the Year in Ukraine from The Banker, a prominent British financial publication.

PrivatBank Deputy Chairwoman Ludmila Schmalchenko accepted the award on behalf of PrivatBank in London.

It is the third time in the last five years that PrivatBank has won The Banker’s Bank of the Year in Ukraine, previously garnering the honor in 2012 and 2010.

PrivatBank is the largest Ukrainian bank and the leader of national retail banking and financial technology.

PrivatBank Bank of the Year Ukraine PrivatBankNews
PrivatBank Deputy Chairwoman Ludmila Schmalchenko accepts Bank of the Year in Ukraine award from The Banker in London.

PrivatBank named Best FX Provider by Global Finance Magazine

PrivatBank has been named Best FX Provider by Global Finance Magazine for Ukraine in 2017.

The award recognizes best-in-class transaction volume, market share, global coverage, customer service, competitive pricing, and innovative technologies.

The recognition solidifies PrivatBank’s position as the strongest and most innovative bank in Ukraine, and the larger Eastern European market.

“The global turmoil of recent years shows no signs of abating, with dramatic incidents such as the UK’s Brexit vote or the US election of Donald Trump having major impact on currencies. The winners of these awards have been successful in navigating these minefields,” said Joseph Giarraputo, publisher and editorial director of Global Finance.

Headquartered in New York City and with offices around the world, Global Finance has over 30 years experience covering international financial markets and an audience including senior corporate and financial officers.

PrivatBank unveils new SME loan program

The endeavor aims to create one million jobs for Ukrainians by the end of 2018.

PrivatBank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, unveiled its new small and medium enterprises loan program at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The SME lending program, Country of Successful Business or KUB, aims to create one million new jobs by the end of 2018.

PrivatBank Chairman Alexander Dubilet outlined the KUB program and highlighted its progress so far. The program, which offers loans of between USD $200 and $20,000 to entrepreneurs, has already created 71,000 new jobs as of October 2016.

Over 23,000 entrepreneurs have received loans amounting to USD $78 million.

“We are very excited about the potential of this program. We feel it will have a positive impact on the Ukrainian economy,” said Chairman Dubliet at the launch.

At a time when the Ukrainian economy is faltering and several banks have been shuttered, PrivatBank continues to provide jobs and essential financial services to Ukrainians.

Unemployment in Ukraine is at 10.3 per cent and rising, and 30 per cent of Ukrainians cite the lack of financial opportunities as their main obstacle for business expansion.

The goal of one million jobs by 2018 will give entrepreneurs the funds they need to expand their businesses and invigorate the economy.

This program, along with the necessary reforms undertaken by PrivatBank in cooperation with the National Bank of Ukraine and the IMF, will get the economy back on track.

PrivatBank will host business forums in the different regions of Ukraine to educate the public on the offerings of the program.

PrivatBank is the largest taxpayer by financial institution and one of the largest job creators for Ukraine.

To find out more about KUB, please visit the website.

Our Related-Party Loans Are Minimal at PrivatBank

PrivatBank’s related-party loans accounted for just 4.71% of its total loan portfolio in September 2016.

“Ukraine Bank Eludes Curbs” (Money & Investing, Oct. 6) contains an inaccurate third-party estimate about PrivatBank’s related-party lending. Using the National Bank of Ukraine’s own methodology, PrivatBank’s related-party loans accounted for just 4.71% of its total loan portfolio in September 2016. When applying International Financial Reporting Standards, related-party lending stood at 17.7% at the end of 2015, as confirmed by a PwC audit. It is nothing like the 40% quoted in the article. Furthermore, only half of our related-party loans concern PrivatBank directly, with the rest related to the companies of the shareholders. We endeavor to exceed the expectations of all valued customers, shareholders and regulators.

Oleksandr Dubilet

Chairman, PrivatBank
Dnipro, Ukraine

Read at The Wall Street Journal.

PrivatBank Continues to Exceed NBU Requirements for Related-Party Loans

PrivatBank reiterated today that loans issued to related parties accounted for just 17.7% of the bank’s total loan portfolio at the end of 2015.  This figure meets the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and was confirmed by a PwC audit.  Such loans by PrivatBank have historically not exceeded 20%, and any recent short-term increase has been the result of exchange rate fluctuations or reductions in the bank’s total portfolio.

PrivatBank Chief Executive, Oleksandr Dubilet, commented, “PrivatBank takes its obligations to its customers, the National Bank of Ukraine and all international standards very seriously.  Using the methodology provided by the NBU, as of September 28, 2016, the related-party loans of the bank accounted for just 4.71% of the total loan portfolio.”

PrivatBank’s ratio of maximum credit exposure under transactions with related parties – otherwise known as NBU’s “N9 ratio” – stood at 29.29% on September 1, 2016 and was in line with the Ukraine banking system’s average N9 ratio of 29.06%.  Approximately half of the related-party loans concern PrivatBank directly, and the rest are related to the companies of the shareholders.

Mr. Dubilet continued, “Despite the fact that NBU methodology and IFR standards differ somewhat, we endeavor to meet the requirements of both.  PrivatBank continues to work closely with the NBU on this and other issues to ensure that we exceed the expectations of our valued customers, shareholders and regulators.”

PrivatBank’s Igor Remez, Pavel Korchagin explain to International Banker how a new digital core can help banks with the real-time processing of millions of events

International Banker reported how PrivatBank navigates the 21st century banking landscape. Igor Remez, Deputy Head of IT and Pavel Korchagin, Head of Engineering at PrivatBank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, authored the piece explaining the digital core and how it helps PrivatBank navigate modern banking.

Banking software designed in the latter half of the 20th century is not a good fit in today’s digital, real-time era – but yet it’s still prevalent. Bank personnel might need a report to be immediately available online, not at the end of the week. A banking customer may need to know the exact amount of funds in each of her accounts at a certain moment, but the bank’s systems may not be able to deliver that information with real-time accuracy.

To address these issues, banks often hire programmers to hardcode new capabilities into their systems, or buy expensive software solutions and again add code to make them cooperate. The amount of code grows exponentially, and so does the complexity and cost of maintenance.

Remez and Korchagin explain that a bank’s best choice for gaining needed flexibility is to install a new digital core at the heart of their systems. In the systems used by most banks today, data is stored in an SQL database. PrivatBank’s approach is to describe the whole company as a set of states and processes, and then start working with explicit states, not data hidden in the database.

The digital core allows for orchestration and simultaneous, parallel processing of computational operations. With a parallel processing digital core, it’s like each account at the bank has its own worker. Whereas traditional systems allow for updates to be calculated once per day, a digital core makes it possible to perform the same updates nearly instantly.

PrivatBank has solved its account processing issues by utilizing a digital core provided by the Corezoid Process Engine. With the platform, account data is stored not in an SQL database but in smart nodes, allowing the bank to use a single data row for all business and regulative calculations, and reducing the necessary size of our data storage by a factor of ten. Every kind of banking account and type of transaction that might occur is now associated with a pre-defined process. Most dramatically, the bank’s “daily summation” task – which used to take up to six hours for the old system to complete – is now processed and finished within just four minutes.

The full article can be found at International Banker.

PrivatBank repays NBU loans ahead of schedule, Remains fully committed to transparency and cooperation with institutions

Ukraine’s PrivatBank repaid its National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) loans well ahead of the repayment schedule and reaffirmed its commitment to transparency and cooperation.

“The bank is actively returning refinancing credits, taking into account the positive pace of the deposit portfolio and stabilization of the situation on the financial market,” said First Deputy PrivatBank Board Chairman Oleh Horokhovsky. The loans were equal to UAH 8 billion in refinancing credits since early 2016.

In addition to the early repayment of loans, PrivatBank reiterated its commitment to full transparency of business practices and partneship with institutions like the NBU, the IMF, and the World Bank. PrivatBank highlighted that it will continue to make payments according to the repayment schedule and, when possible, ahead of schedule, a further demonstration of good faith and cooperation with the NBU.

Founded in 1992, PrivatBank is the leader of the Ukrainian market and Eastern Europe. According to the GFK Ukraine research of banking services for individuals, as of the end of 4Q2015 48.4% of customers of Ukrainian banks used PrivatBank services and more than every third Ukrainian (39.3% of respondents) considered PrivatBank their major bank. The research showed 42.6% of Ukrainian corporations use the services of PrivatBank.

Analysts Say PrivatBank’s Increased Profits Show Resilient Business Model

Despite a turbulent Ukrainian economy, Ukraine’s PrivatBank weathered the storm to post increased profits in 2015. Dr. Alexander Mirtchev, international economist and CEO of Krull Corp., a Washington, DC-based macroeconomic consultancy, stated, “With the current situation in Ukraine, these results show indications of a resilient business model. At this stage, it is important for businesses to demonstrate transparency while coupling their initiatives with positive results.”

Krull Corp. focuses on new economic trends and emerging policy challenges. Dr. Mirtchev has participated in laying the foundation for market democracy, accession to World Trade Organization, NATO and the EU of several transitional economies.

Servicing a large portion of the Ukrainian market, PrivatBank leads the sector. According to the GFK Ukraine research on banking services for individuals, at the end of 4Q2015 48.4 per cent of the total number of Ukrainian banking customers used PrivatBank services. More than a third of the Ukrainian respondents (39.2 per cent) considered PrivatBank their major bank. Additionally, the research indicated that 42.6 per cent of Ukrainian corporations use the PrivatBank‘s services.

The bank’s recently published audited 2015 consolidated annual report shows that the consolidated profit of PrivatBank grew by 11.4 per cent in the last year, and totaled UAH 275 million (more than USD 11 million).

The report was prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the world’s leading auditing companies. PrivatBank Group’s capital amounts to UAH 29,045 mln, and assets total UAH 247,934 mln. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) improved from 13.7 per cent up to 14.9 per cent in 2015 according to the Basel requirements. PrivatBank‘s CAR was 11 per cent, above the mandatory minimum of 10 per cent according to the regulatory requirements of the National Bank of Ukraine.

PrivatBank recognized as largest contactless payment Ukrainian bank

PrivatBank was recognized as the largest bank in Ukraine with contactless payments.

This was reported by representatives of Visa, handing the bank a special diploma “For the most VISA payWave acceptance network.” According to Privat, beginning in February 2016, when the bank started receiving VISA payWave contactless payment cards in its network of POS-terminals opportunity VISA contactless cards purchases benefited more than 1.5 million people.

“Every month, more than 500 thousand customers choose contactless payments VISA payWave as the most convenient alternative to classic bank cards or cash,” said deputy chairman of PrivatBank Roman Neginsky. “We are continuing to expand the network of receiving payment for payWave Visa payment system technology, which means that Ukrainians will be more opportunities to pay the non-contact. ”

Conveniently and securely pay for purchases with VISA payWave cards, which can now be used at more than 64 thousand PrivatBank terminals installed at trade and service enterprises in Ukraine:. “Silpo”, “ATB”, METRO, gas stations ANP, etc. All produced PrivatBank card.. VISA rayWave equipped with a contactless module, and chip and magnetic strip, that allows to use them for payment at any point of reception. When buying for less than 200 UAH payWave cardholders do not have to enter a PIN or sign a receipt.

VISA payWave contactless technology meets high security standards VISA thanks to an encrypted code that is transmitted along with the information about the payment and is unique to each transaction. VISA payWave technology provides card payment terminals and interoperability worldwide. Today VISA payWave cards can be easily and quickly calculated in 68 countries around the world.

PrivatBank Shows Increased Profit Despite Challenging Economy in Ukraine

The Bank’s 2015 consolidated profit grows by 11.4 per cent, totals more than USD 11 million

Ukaine’s PrivatBank showed strong results in 2015 despite a turbulent Ukrainian economy.  According to the bank’s audited consolidated annual report that was recently published, the consolidated profit of PrivatBank for 2015 grew by 11.4 per cent compared to 2014 and totaled UAH 275 million (more than USD 11 million).

As per the financial statements prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the world’s leading auditing companies, the capital of PrivatBank Group as of the end of 2015 amounts to UAH 29,045 mln, and assets total UAH 247,934 mln. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) according toBasel requirements improved from 13.7 per cent up to 14.9 per cent in 2015 and PrivatBank‘s CAR according to the regulatory requirements of the National Bank of Ukraine was 11 per cent (above the mandatory minimum of 10 per cent).

PrivatBank is the leader of the Ukrainian market and services a large portion of the Ukrainian economy. According to the GFK Ukraine research on banking services for individuals, at the end of 4Q2015 48.4 per cent of the total number of Ukrainian banking customers used PrivatBank services. More than a third of the Ukrainian respondents (39.2 per cent) considered PrivatBank their major bank. Additionally, the research indicated that 42.6 per cent of Ukrainian corporations use the PrivatBank‘s services.