Ukrainian depositors are fleeing Russian banks twice as fast as from “their own”
Moscow – Kyiv, October 22 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – Over the first nine months of 2014, hryvnia deposits held by individuals in Ukrainian banks fell by 18%, to UAH 207,9 billion. Foreign currency deposits have declined even more sharply: by 34,1% since the beginning of the year, to $15,1 billion, according to the National Bank of Ukraine. Thus, taking into account the average hryvnia exchange rate, Ukrainian banks have lost approximately $10 billion, or a quarter of all deposits, since the beginning of the year, Izvestia summarizes . Meanwhile, Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russian banks are also losing customers, and at a much greater rate than the Ukrainian banking system as a whole.
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According to NBU reports, depositors began actively withdrawing funds from Ukrainian banks in January 2014. The outflow of household deposits from Ukrainian banks is increasing. For example, in July, citizens’ deposits in hryvnia decreased by 0,4%, in August - by 1,8%, in September - by 3,9%. The volume of foreign currency deposits decreased by 2,9% in July, by 3,2% in August, and by 4,8% in September.
In the largest bank in Ukraine, Privatbank of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, the decrease in the volume of deposits of individuals for 9 months of 2014 amounted to 4,8% - from $9,6 billion to $9,2 billion (101,8 billion hryvnia). The volume of deposits in hryvnia decreased by 17,7%, to 51,7 billion hryvnia; in foreign currency, on the contrary, it increased by 8,5%, to 52 billion hryvnia, but this growth is associated with currency revaluation
Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russian banks are also losing customers, much more than the Ukrainian banking system as a whole. In Sberbank (Ukraine), household deposits for 9 months of 2014 decreased by 37,5%, to 10,1 billion hryvnia. Moreover, deposits in hryvnia decreased by 110,1%, to 1,7 billion hryvnia, in foreign currency - by 22,9%, to 8,4 billion hryvnia. For the third quarter of 2014, Sberbank received a loss of 11,4 million hryvnia.
The volume of household deposits in Prominvestbank (a subsidiary of VEB) decreased by 9,7%, to UAH 7,4 billion. In the national currency of Ukraine, the volume of household deposits decreased by 28,9%, to 3,8 billion hryvnia.
The head of the analytical department of the BKF bank, Maxim Osadchiy, explains the significantly greater outflow of deposits from the Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russian banks not by the warming up of anti-Russian sentiments, but by the possible threat of destructive actions towards these credit organizations on the part of the Ukrainian authorities.
Ukrainian depositors are fleeing Russian banks twice as fast as they are fleeing their own.