he share of non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector decreased by 0.53 percentage points (pp) to 13.34% in February, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

"New loans continue to maintain high quality, so the loan portfolio is good, and the default rate is at a historically low level," the regulator noted on its Telegram channel.

It is noted that the gross volume of loans in the banking system in February increased by UAH 50.24 billion to UAH 1 trillion 431.9 billion, while the gross volume of non-performing loans decreased by UAH 539.14 million over the month to UAH 191.04 billion.

The share of NPLs in February in financial institutions with foreign capital decreased to 6.41% from 6.54% in January, in private Ukrainian banks - to 8.07% from 8.38%, in banks with state participation excluding PrivatBank - to 23.81% from 25.08%, in PrivatBank - to 7.85% from 8.21%.

In absolute terms, NPLs increased in the group of banks with foreign capital as of March 1 – by UAH 12.43 million, to UAH 18.91 billion.

The top five banks by NPL volume were state-owned banks: Oschadbank with UAH 44.28 billion, Ukreximbank with UAH 33.07 billion, Sens Bank with UAH 23.16 billion, Ukrgasbank with UAH 21.87 billion, and PrivatBank with UAH 19.04 billion.

The top ten also includes Raiffeisen Bank with UAH 8.12 billion, FUIB with UAH 5.29 billion, TAScombank with UAH 4.16 billion, Idea Bank with UAH 3.45 billion, and OTP Bank with UAH 3.44 billion.

At the same time, Alliance Bank had the highest share of NPLs among banks with the largest loan portfolio - 46.8%, followed by Idea Bank with 29.2%.

Places from third to sixth were taken by state-owned banks: Sens Bank with 28.9%, Oschadbank - 24.6%, Ukreximbank - 23.3% and Ukrgasbank - 19.6%.

The top ten also includes TAScombank with 16.5%, A-Bank - 11.0%, Radabank - 10.4% and MTB Bank - 8.6%.

The National Bank noted that in the corporate sector, the share of non-performing loans in February decreased from 16.95% to 16.57%, and in the retail sector from 10.83% to 10.71%.

As reported, the downward trend in the share of NPLs has continued since early 2023, when they jumped to 38.1%. Before Russia's full-scale invasion, non-performing loans in Ukrainian banks had been declining since 2018: from 55% to 27% as of March 1, 2022.