Oligarchs making gains: the costly nationalisation of Ukraine’s PrivatBank

On 18 December 2016, the government in Ukraine decided to nationalise the country’s largest bank, PrivatBank. It has been owned by the oligarchs Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Henadiy Boholyubov. Formally, the decision was taken following a motion from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Financial Stability Council after the major shareholders put forward a proposal to the government to take over the bank for the benefit of its clients.

On 19 December 2016, in an attempt to calm the situation on the market, Ukraine’s most senior officials, including the president, the prime minister and the head of the NBU, guaranteed the safety of deposits to clients of PrivatBank. In the pessimistic scenario, the state will have to pay 148 billion hryvnias for the nationalisation of this bank.