The National Bank of Ukraine has published the banking system’s financial performance indicators for 2015.

“This year the preparation of financial statements has taken longer than usual in the wake of the transition of the Ukrainian banking sector to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2015. From early December through end-March 2016, banks were in the process of completing the transition to IFRS. The annual financial statements, which have to be submitted by 30 April 2016,  were compiled simultaneously with the quarterly financial statements,” explained Director of the NBU Accounting Department. “Furthermore, discrepancies have been observed between the financial statements compiled in accordance with the national accounting rules and those compiled in compliance with IFRS.  Therefore, we showed understanding for banks faced with the challenge of bridging discrepancies and gave them   extra time to compile financial statements.  It is important to give a real picture of the banking sector.

In light of the transition to IFRS, it is inappropriate to compare last year’s financial performance indicators with those of the previous years. Even the information provided in the annual financial statements suggest that the key performance indicators are not fully comparable  across different banks, and thus  cannot be relied on to give a real picture of the banking sector. Following the diagnostic studies of the top twenty largest banks by assets, which were conducted last year, special  provisioning requirements were imposed on these banks.  This move had an impact on the equity and the financials of both the top twenty and twenty subsequent banks by assets that are currently undergoing diagnostic studies.  

The quarterly financial statements will be released by the NBU on 19 May 2016.