The number of non-performing loans is decreasing, but slowly - Hetmantsev
Kyiv • UNN
During the war, the portfolio of "bad loans" in Ukraine increased by 37%. Hetmantsev proposes to create a bank of "bad assets" to settle bad debts accumulated during the war.
The share of non-performing loans has increased by 37% during the war, and the portfolio of "bad loans" is currently decreasing, but this process is slow. This was reported by Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, UNN reports.
"During the war, the portfolio of bad loans increased by 37% (+ UAH 113.1 billion). 90% of this increase is made up of business loans, which is primarily a consequence of the deterioration of the borrowers' financial condition, as well as damage and loss of assets due to the war," the MP points out.
According to him, in the first half of the year, the share of non-performing loans (NPL) as a percentage of the total loan portfolio decreased to 34.6% (from 37.4% at the beginning of the year). In total, the NPL portfolio decreased by UAH 4.2 billion (to UAH 418.2 billion) over the six months.
Hetmantsev believes that one possible solution to the problem is to create a bad asset bank to settle current and future bad debts accumulated during a full-scale war.
"Such a specialized institution can be created on the basis of one of the small banks that has recently become state-owned due to sanctions, possibly with additional donor participation. Its main mission is to take all or most of the current and future military NPLs on its balance sheet at a certain discount for the purpose of further passive or active management of such stressed assets," the MP points out.
Context
In the comments of UNN, experts point outthat the reduction of the share of non-repayment of loans from businesses may be affected by easing the ban on converting foreign currency loans into hryvnia for entrepreneurs. Currently, there is a total ban, but the NBU may ease it by allowing the bank and the client to decide independently whether to convert all or part of the foreign currency loan.
One of the Ukrainian businesses that has a foreign currency loan that dates back to 2006 is the owners of the Gulliver shopping center in Kyiv. By the way, at the time of the loan, the company that received the loan had other owners. The crisis of 2014 dealt an irreparable blow to businesses that had been lent in foreign currency. This led to the fact that the current owners of Gulliver were forced to restructure their debt in 2020. However, it was not possible to convert the entire loan into hryvnia.
