NBU declared the financial stability of the banking system: capital exceeded 290 billion hryvnias
The Ukrainian banking system has sufficient capital reserves and complies with all established capital adequacy standards. At the end of the year, the total capital of banks increased by 22 billion hryvnias, which corresponds to an increase of 8%, and by the beginning of 2026 reached 290.8 billion hryvnias. This was reported by the NBU press service.
The NBU explains that bank capital serves as a financial reserve that allows institutions to fulfill their obligations to depositors even in the event of unforeseen difficulties.
Despite more active lending, which has somewhat affected formal capital adequacy indicators, all key standards remain significantly higher than the minimum permissible levels. In particular, the regulatory capital adequacy ratio is 15.83% with a requirement of at least 10%, the core capital adequacy ratio is 15.54% with a minimum of 5.625%, and the tier 1 capital adequacy ratio is 5.54% with a set threshold of 7.5%.
In 2025, banks underwent a stability assessment according to the standard pre-war procedure for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The results showed that the system has sufficient resources to cover risks and is able to support lending to businesses and the population even in negative scenarios. The NBU noted that only individual institutions with increased capital requirements are implementing restructuring programs agreed with the regulator.
At the same time, 2026 creates additional challenges for the sector. Increasing the bank profit tax rate to 50% limits the possibility of rapid expansion of operations, but the strategic course for implementing European Union requirements remains unchanged.
Starting in 2027, the banking system will face the introduction of capital buffers for additional protection, increased individual capital requirements within Pillar II, as well as full compliance with the negotiating positions on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. The National Bank emphasizes that these changes will be implemented in stages.
It was previously reported that new tax rules will come into effect for Ukrainian banks on January 1, 2026: the basic profit tax rate is set at 50%, the same rate applies to dividend taxation.
