Ukraine’s largest bank, PrivatBank, carried out a large-scale balance-sheet clean-up in December 2025, ceasing recognition of approximately UAH 140bn in old non-performing hryvnia-denominated assets. This was reported by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). The step allowed the bank to significantly improve the quality of its loan portfolio and fundamentally change its non-performing loan metrics.
As a result of the write-off, PrivatBank’s NPL ratio fell from 44.7% — the highest level in the country’s banking system — to 8.45%. This is the bank’s lowest level since 2009 and a figure below the market average. The large-scale reduction of problem assets at PrivatBank also had a material impact on the overall picture across the banking sector.
According to the NBU’s preliminary data, as of 1 January 2026 the share of non-performing loans across Ukraine’s banking system as a whole declined from 24% to 14%. Significant volumes of NPLs were also written off by other state-owned banks at the end of 2025, leading to a marked improvement in indicators within the state banking segment. Currently, the NPL ratio at state-owned banks has fallen below 20%, stands at 8.4% in privately owned banks with domestic capital, and at 6.5% in banks with foreign capital. These are the lowest levels of problem loans in more than 15 years.
The National Bank emphasises that the large-scale write-off of problem assets has not weakened the resilience of the banking system. On the contrary, it is taking place amid an active recovery in lending and strong profitability. In December 2025, net hryvnia lending to businesses increased by 35.6% year-on-year, while lending to households rose by 32%.
The financial results of the banking sector also remain strong. According to the regulator’s preliminary estimates, solvent Ukrainian banks generated UAH 126.8bn in net profit in 2025. At the same time, following the sharp improvement in PrivatBank’s indicators, the highest NPL ratio among Ukrainian banks as of early December was recorded at Alliance Bank, at 43.2%.
